Me: Yes, the new chapter is done!

Sam: Oh, finally, you really don't know how to keep promises.

Me: HEY! Life gets in the way…

Sam: In other words, you're lazy.

*I try to grab Sam's neck but she moves quickly and I fall to the ground. Sam kneels beside me and pokes me with a stick.*

Me (with the little shreds of my dignity that's left addresses to the readers): I don't own Gakuen Alice.

Higher! Come on…come on!

ACK! I hit the ground and scrap my knees. The skin reddens and starts peeling off to show pink flesh. Hurray for me, I might have gone an inch above my record. I sigh to myself. I want to die. Except I already am. Well, sorta. Talk about complications, they say life is difficult, try being dead. It gives 'weird' a whole new dimension.

I rip off the seal of the alcohol pad and wipe my ripped skin with it. It stings but I ignore it and work fast. When I'm done, I try flying again.

I know Luna gave me her body, but I think I've mentally and physically drained this body. If the girl cared, I'd be in for a lawsuit.

"What are you doing on the roof of your house?"

I turn around to see Hotaru standing five feet away, "Hotaru! What are you doing here?!" I run to hug her but she puts her palm on my forehead and keeps me at arms length, "I asked you a question first."

"I'm learning to fly!" I grin at her and give up trying to hug the beautiful girl. She raises an eyebrow and I sigh as I start to explain the procedure.

"I'm an angel in training and part of that training is being able to fly but as I told you before, I can't do that, so I'm practicing."

She nods, and I realize I can no longer surprise Hotaru since I've pretty much proved the impossible to her. "How far have you got?"

"Umm, three inches."

"Three inches? My nephew can jump higher than that." She folds her arms.

"Aww! Little Souchiro is all grown up, he's turning four this year right?"

"Yes, but that's beside the point." She walks up to me and examines my sides, putting her hand on her chin thoughtfully.

"Umm…Hotaru? What are you doing?" I stand awkwardly as she surveys my body.

She looks up at me with questioning eyes, "Shouldn't you have wings?"

"Oh, yeah, I should. But I don't."

"So how does this work then? Shouldn't you wait for them to grow and then try to fly?"

"No, everyone grows wings right when they start their training course, but I didn't get mine." I say feeling the cold wind on my bare back.

"Why is that?" She asks.

"I don't know, but I was told that I should try flying and they just might show up."

"That doesn't make sense. Maybe you should try triggering them."

"Like try jumping from here?"

"You want to create more rumors about how suicidal you are?" I watch her roll her eyes at my answering grin.

"Luna!" I recognize Sumire's voice calling me from the house.

"Yeah!?" I yell loud enough for her to hear.

"Garnet brought your paints!"

Yes, "Thanks!"

I grab Hotaru's wrist and climb down the roof stairs to Luna's room. I stop when I see the paint cans and grin at Hotaru.

"What?" She looks at me weirdly.

I hold up an old grey shirt with black shorts.

~Ten Minutes later

"I smell like the gutter," I hear Hotaru complain.

"Oh boo-hoo. Its only paint and I needed help anyway." I say as I fluidly paint the wall a creamy white.

"You have maids, better yet; you have Shouda for this kind of thing."

"Be nice Hotaru, Sumire's busy with schoolwork, she's taking too many advanced classes and she didn't master rocket science in her mother's stomach like you did."

Hotaru purses her lips and instead of replying, she dips her brush into the dark blue paint and splatters it across my face.

I'm dumbfounded for half a moment before an evil smile blooms on my face and I reach for the coral colored paint.

Two hours later, the walls are painted with splashes of random yellows, greens, purples, reds and any other color imaginable. I'm covered from head to toe in paint and my face is frozen into a smile. Not because I'm happy but because the paint has made my facial muscles too stiff.

I sit next to Ruka in class now. I have my suspicions on Natsume bullying Ruka to switching seats with him just so he doesn't have to sit next to me. He's such a Meanie.

I don't especially mind though, it's easier to concentrate in class when he's not so close to me. But I do feel him staring at me sometimes, I feel his eyes boring holes on the side of my face and I pretend not to notice just because I've found it harder to look at him ever since the rainy day incident.

It's becoming harder to ignore him though, I miss him and more than anything, I want to talk to him again; it's the longest I've ever gone to not talking to him. He doesn't seem to mind my absence though. It drives me mad.

Art is the only time I can talk to him as the class is filled with strangers from other grades but the idiot prefers to put his head down and pretend that I don't exist in his world. Fine, be that way, I'll be gone pretty soon anyway.

That's the other factor that is driving me to a corner; I don't have much time left. In some ways I'm happy; it means I only have to watch out for Natsume for just a few more days until destiny changes its course.

But I've become attached to the living. Luna's body has become a constant and everyday life in that mansion seems normal. I'm terrified into what I'm turning into.

Shaking my head I start taking notes on the lecture going on in class to keep my thoughts at bay.

I walk up the stairs to the school rooftop during lunch time. I tried eating lunch with the normal gang but every time I go to sit beside them Natsume would get up and leave. It was hurtful and I felt horrible so I decided to find a new lunch spot. Hotaru comes by sometimes to have lunch with me but she's usually busy with a new invention so she doesn't have much time to spare.

I sit on the floor with my back to the steel railing of the rooftop. I munch on the tuna sandwich I packed myself until I feel a tap on my shoulder. I screech and the sandwich falls to the ground.

I turn around furiously to punch the idiot that made me waste precious food only to come into contact with green eyes.

"Kitsuneme!" I stand up to see my guardian angel standing beside me.

"Hey." He says with a toothy grin.

"You-what are you doing here?" I fumble.

"Well, I have a few things to report to you, and I thought it would be better to see you at school rather than wait for you to get home." He says sitting with his legs outstretched on the floor. I sink to the ground and whack his shoulder from beside me.

"Ouch! What was that for?" He exclaims rubbing his shoulder.

"For not telling me that you would be gone for weeks and for not being there when I really needed you." I gather my sandwich and throw it in the brown bag, sad that I can no longer eat it.

"Sorry, but you'll forgive me once I tell you this."

"Oh yeah, what is it?" I say raising my eyebrows expectantly.

All of a sudden my heart feels heavy and the breath gets sucked out of me as the air around me goes cold and I get an ominous feeling. I don't know why but I look down on the ground and for some reason I can tell that out of the busy Tokyo Street, the raven haired boy waiting at the intersection is Natsume.

I don't know why but it seemed as though every limb in my body knew what would come next as I jumped over the railing and stood on the edge of the roof looking down on the busy street.

The light turns red and Natsume is talking to someone on the phone, just before the light turns back to green he starts walking down the intersection. The next thing I know is that a white truck comes zooming down the street and I'm falling.

"No," I gasp out as I fall from the school building, he's going to die. That truck is going to run him over. It'll be over in a second. Unless I do something.

I have to save him. I have to. The thought runs around my head as I feel my back grow warmer and my feet grow lighter. Gigantic white feathers bloom from my back and lift me up in the air.

I don't know how I do it but I fly over to Natsume and pull him away from the incoming truck. I feel the rush of the wind and my hair falls into my eyes, I can't tell what part of Natsume I grabbed but all I know is that I've pushed him away from the intersection. I realize a little too late that I don't exactly know how to control these wings as I slam into a window of a restaurant like a stupid bird that can't tell between a closed glass window and an open one.

"Ow," I mutter and rub my head. The restaurant is empty, thank goodness. If not, there would probably be a crowd of people giving me unwanted attention.

"Oi, you're heavy." A muffled voice comes from beneath me and I realize that I'm sitting on top of Natsume.

I gasp and get up. The vision in the glass window catches my attention as I watch bright feathery wings fold into my back. I look up at Natsume but he hasn't noticed my presence going straight to his phone right after he gets himself off the ground.

The image of him on that stupid thing that could've cost him his life makes something in me snap with relief and annoyance. I grab the phone from his hand and chuck it into the side alley. I hear it hit the floor somewhere far away and break.

"What the heck Cleopatra!? Are you out of your min-" I don't let him finish the sentence as I wrap my arms around him. Tears run down my cheek as relief settles within me. My mind becomes a blur of random thoughts.

He's alive, He's ok, I can fly. He talked to me.

"Baka. You deserve to die, you're a baka." I yell into his chest as more tears fall. I realize I'm making his shirt wet and acting like an idiot but being this way feels so nostalgic and normal, his body heat, his broad shoulders, his hard chest.

After a minute I feel a hand caress my hair, "If that's the case, then why'd you save me, idiot."

"Because I'm also a baka, you baka." I blubber into his chest.

He puts his forehead on my shoulder and sighs into my hair. My heart starts beating over time as the tears stop.

"God that was hard to do. It annoys me when I can't talk to you." He murmurs.

My heart flutters, "Then why'd you ignore me for weeks?"

"Cause you did," He says as he removes his forehead from my shoulder and looks down at me with smoldering eyes.

He was looking right at me after so long. Great, now I was loosing my train of thought, "I thought you were mad at me."

"I was, but I'm not a kid, I got over it."

Sure, "Uh-huh. Well telling me that would've been helpful, like "hey, I'm not mad at you anymore so you can talk to me now or else I'll start acting like a moron with issues."

"Don't start your stupid comments yet. I'm not an idiot; I thought you were mad too."

"What? Why would I be mad?" I asked, confused.

He ignored the question and asked me one instead, "How did you get here so fast?" He narrowed his eyes as he asked me this.

"What do you mean, I was right behind you." I give him an innocent look and scrunch my eyebrows in confusion. "Oh, you probably didn't notice since you were too busy pretending I didn't exist." Yes, good one Mikan.

He leaned in closer and narrowed his eyes into slits. I take a step back. "How on earth did I end up fifty feet away from where I was standing? There's no way you're so strong that you can push me that hard, and how good can your reflexes be that you saved me from an incoming truck."

I gulped as I realized that he was asking all the hard questions and was way too close for comfort. I took another step back and answered as levelly as I could, there must be a limit as to how much an angel can lie. "I'm really strong for your information, do you know anyone else whose survived a 10 story fall and survived? Not to mention be perfectly healthy and beautiful as I am?" I flip my hair like an idiot at this point.

Natsume just stares at me for a long moment and asks, "How did you know where I was?"

"I stalked you," I can't tell him I'm an angel and I just got my wings a few minutes ago, I would sound crazy. I'd rather he think of me as a creep than a madwoman.

"…Are you in love with me?" He leans down so that our noses touch.

My heart skips a beat and I turn my face away, "N-no!" Oh no, that came out too fast and too strong.

He didn't move away and for the first time since I entered his life again, I saw Natsume Hyuga smile. A real smile, one with dimples and crinkly eyes.

I must not faint. I gulped and stepped back.

"Sorry, but I'm taken." He says and starts walking away.

"Where are you going?" I followed after him not sure what else to do, "And you told me that you weren't interested in that."

"I'm not; I'm taken by a dead woman." He says not skipping a beat.

I smile sadly, he's such a freak.

"Is Mrs. Hyuga's order ready?"

"Yes, just a moment."

I watch Natsume talk to a red haired woman over a counter. Currently I'm standing in what looks like a dress shop. Rows of colorful dresses with twisted flower patterns decorate the sides and corners of the shop. I watch as seamstresses with measuring tap around their neck help girls get dressed. It seems as though the store is filled with feminine vibes being pointed towards a raven haired boy.

I start to feel out of place as I stand behind Natsume who doesn't seem to notice the admiration from practically every girl within the store. I feel a possessive streak come out as I glare at a girl in a bright pink dress drooling over him, and move closer to Natsume so that our shoulders touch.

He looks at me when he sees the close proximity. I smile nonchalantly and bump my shoulder with his. He moves away an inch and regards the woman over the counter again.

I watch as the girl I glared at grins evilly at me. She's ugly. I don't care to see whether she is or not but she will forever live in my mind as the ugly girl who keeps ogling Natsume. I sigh as I realize I have no right to think this way anymore but it's something I can't help.

"What are we doing here, Natsume?" I want to leave this female infested place at once.

He doesn't answer and I start poking his shoulder blade knowing from experience that he doesn't like it when anyone touches him there.

He continues to ignore me the first few times, what the heck; did he develop immunity while I was gone? Just as I'm about to stop, he grabs my wrist and pulls it down grasping my hand in his.

I look back at the girl whose stare has now turned into a glare at me; I send her a cheery smile. Take that, stupid.

"Here you are, sir." The woman hands Natsume a strapless evening dress with a color that matches his eyes wrapped in a long clear bag. It was gorgeous with silver sequencing around the bodice and at the ends of the skirt.

Natsume takes it from her and hands her his credit card. After a few minutes of clicking here and there we leave the shop with Natsume holding the dress in one hand and his other hand wrapped around mine.

"Natsume, this isn't a secret hobby of yours, is it?" I ask.

He sends me a cold glare. "It's my mom's, you moron."

I smile, "phew, that's reassuring."

After a few seconds Natsume looks around the busy metropolitan area and notices people looking at the pretty dress. He shoves the dress at me and pulls me along.

"Why did you give it to me?"

"Because there may be other idiots like you in the world that can get the wrong idea, so you hold it."

I grin at his childishness, and let him tug me to wherever the heck he's going.

I had forgotten how big this house was. Not even the higher up's palace had something over this white castle that seemed as though it belonged in the Victorian era.

"What are you looking at, come inside stupid." Natsume says as he enters through the iron gates that were opened my two men dressed in black.

The Koizumis really have nothing over the Hyugas. I enter the intimidating lot and hurry to stand beside Natsume as I pretend that I see mansions that can rival castles everyday.

Natsume enters the house through white double doors. I watch as two rows of maids are made who instantly say, "Welcome back, young master," right when Natsume comes in.

I've come to Natsume's house before but I don't remember there being these many servants, I remember Ms. Hyuga, Natsume's mom hated having random strangers around the house so she only kept an old butler, Nami.

"I'll take that, young miss," I watch as the maid opens her arms and gestures towards the dress. It takes me a while to realize that she's talking to me.

"O-oh! Sorry, here." I put the dress in her awaiting arms.

"Put it in mom's room, she's expecting it." Natsume says and the maid scurries upstairs after a quick nod.

Natsume grabs my hand for the second time today and pulls me upstairs, "Tell Nami to bring refreshments to my room." And with that the maids all disperse. Ah, so Nami's still around.

I look around as I'm tugged upstairs. The same blue carpet, the same oil paintings. I put my hand on the railing of the staircase where there are small scratches.

I giggle as I remember the wounded black cat Natsume and I found in the park. It had created a huge ruckus inside Natsume's house and broken many tapestries. It would have fallen from the staircase at this point if Natsume's hadn't saved it.

"What's so funny?" Natsume stares at me blankly as I smile over the nostalgic memory print.

"Nothing." I smile innocently.

He raises his eyebrows and his eyes light up as he notices the cat scratches. He walks down and puts his hand over the scratches. I watch as his face turns wistful and he runs his hand over the railing lost in memory.

"Cat scratches?" I question.

"What? Oh, um, yeah." He says still looking at the railing.

"Is there a story to it?" I ask trying to be as casual as the situation allows.

"No, nothing special." He says and starts ascending the stairs making me run in order to catch up.

I watch a melancholy look pass through his face as he keeps climbing, "Doesn't seem like nothing to me."

"There are too many memories of her in this house." Is his response. I decide to not talk again.

I remember that the last one down the hallway is Natsume's room so I'm a bit surprised when Natsume unlocks the door and we enter the room and the first thing I see is dust.

I cough as we enter and see broken pieces of glass and overturned lamps.

"Waoh, what happened here?" I remember Natsume to have always been a clean freak; he wouldn't let anyone touch his things in fear that they may get their finger prints on them.

"Ah, yeah, I went a little rampage after I found out Mikan died." I cringe when I hear my name, I realize it is the first time he has said it out loud, he seems to have realized too because his shoulders tense.

"So you broke glass and destroyed furniture? Was it effective in calming you down?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could.

He gave me a bitter smile, "Not at all."

I nodded and walked around the large space, the place hadn't changed at all save for the messiness.

I smiled when I saw the posters on his wall, "Secret Agent?" I said out loud.

"Yeah, I need to take those down," I heard him say as he rummaged through his dresser.

"Why, they're cool. You like them don't you?" It was your dream to be one, right.

"I did when I was a kid, stupid, not anymore." He continued to look through his stuff as he said this with his back towards me.

"Wait, so you don't want to be a secret agent anymore?" I deadpan on him, what the heck?

"No, that was a stupid dre-wait, how did you know that?" He turns around now.

Uh-oh, "what are you talking about, everyone knows." I say.

"No, I only told one person. And she never told anyone." He stares at me with suspicious and confused eyes.

"Umm, I-"

Door knocks. "Sire, I have brought snacks."

Natsume doesn't look away from me or moves from his spot on the dresser as he says, "Yeah, come in, Nami."

Nami comes in and puts the tray of snacks on a side table by Natsume's bed. He doesn't look at me once.

"Will there be anything else, sir." He asks.

"No, leave." Natsume replies.

Nami bows before leaving and shutting the door.

Oh no, I just keep blabbing with my stupid mouth. Good job Mikan, you've done it again.

"W-wow! Snacks! Yum, don't mind if I do." I reach for the tray but Natsume grabs it and pulls it away from me.

"Don't be so mean." I say, grabbing for the tray trying to think of a way out of this.

"Why won't you just answer?" He asks.

"I-AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A hairy dark brown bug climbs down the wall and falls five inches from me.

I jump on Natsume forgetting dignity and the like. "Wa, you moron!" Natsume looses balance and the tray falls to the ground and he falls to the floor with me on top of him.

"Ouch," My head hits Natsume's chin and I fall on top of him. I get up to see his face inches from mine.

I push him away and get up with crimson cheeks. "What are you doing, baka! Get that stupid bug away from here."

"Calm down, it won't eat you." He says rubbing his chin from where my head hit it.

He gets up and walks up to the disgusting bug and scoops it up in his palm, "It's a tarantula, they're harmless."

"Yeah yeah, just get it AWAY from me!" I jump on top of Natsume's bed suddenly feeling as through the entire floor of the bedroom is infested with the bugs.

"Ok, what, you want me to kill it?" He puts his other palm over the bug.

"No, why would you do that? It didn't do anything wrong. Just get it out of the house." I say from the bed.

He eyes widen and he stares at me for a heartbeat, then he puts the bug on a tree branch outside of his window.

I sigh in relief and get off the bed. My cheeks redden as embarrassment catches up with me on my stupid acts.

I ignore it and pretend as though nothing happened, "It's your fault that the thing was inside here, you should really clean up around here."

I dust my clothes and walk towards the door using this as my chance to escape before Natsume remembers his earlier question.

"Who are you?" It was barely above a whisper but I hear the sentence as clear as though it was yelled at me.

I force laughter, "What are you talking about, I'm Luna. Did that Tarantula do something to you?"

"No, you're not." He walks up and blocks the door. I take a step back and force more laughter, praying that it doesn't sound fake.

"What is it?" I ask slowly as though I'm talking to a child."

"I thought it was impossible. But you're too alike. Your way of talking, laughing, even your fear of bugs and your noble, "don't kill a single living creature". And this, there is no way that anyone knows all of this about me." He starts looking at me with something that I could never fathom even in my worst nightmares; he has a shining light of hope in those dimmed red eyes.

No, don't do this to me, Natsume. "I think you've hurt yourself, come one sit down." I reach for him but he grabs my hand and pulls me towards him.

He puts a palm to the side of my face and whispers in a small voice what shatters me from the inside, "It's you, isn't it. Mikan?"

Dun, Dun, DUN! Review?