[A/N: I switch the viewpoints up in the chapters when I feel like it ;) See if you can guess who's point of view it is by the end of the chapter. But I'll probably tell you anyway :)

Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice isn't mine, but this computer is. :) Mwahahahahaha.

Equilibrium

~*~

Pulse Two: Immediate Change

~*~

A burning that sliced through my veins like a blade made me gasp and sit up quickly. I almost screamed out of shock, but then the burning slid into my throat.

I looked around warily. Nobody. But I wasn't back at the base, and I sure as heck wasn't at that rocky peak. That peak reminded me of the mysterious savior. What had his name been again? Na...nu...no?

Oh. Yeah. Natsume Hyuuga.

I blinked a few times to take in my surroundings. Everything looked so...clear. In a strange, yet beautiful way. Like someone had taken my eyes out of their sockets and given them a good scrubbing, then put them back in. In fact, not only my vision but all my senses were sharper. Especially my sense of smell. I swore I could smell at least fifty miles away from here...wherever I was.

And then I got ahold of myself and looked around, snapping my head from one side of the room to another in a millisecond. I appeared to be in a bedchamber. It was very old-fashioned, yet tasteful. The bed that I was laying on wasn't that large, but was large enough to accommodate me. Gauzy curtains hung down, shielding the light that was streaming in through the window. I looked down at myself. I was wearing a long sleeved old-fashioned nightgown.

Okay...now that I knew my surroundings, I needed to know where I was.

A door opened; I was on my knees in an instant, at a crouch at the top of the bed. It amazed me how fast I had reacted to the slight sound, but now wasn't the time to think about that. Someone was approaching the bed, and the curtain was being lifted aside...

"So you're awake." It was Natsume Hyuuga, my savior.

"Ah!" I sat back on my haunches. "It's only you." A million thoughts rushed into my head at once, pushing against my lips. "Umm, thank you for---"

"Don't stress it." He looked around a little. "So, do you feel different?"

"A bit." I wasn't going to lie. Besides my senses being sharper than they'd ever been, there was the burning in my throat that felt like someone lit a match and tossed it into my mouth. My skin felt like ice...and shouldn't my heart have been beating? I couldn't feel anything in my chest or in my veins. Nothing.

Except that burning.

"Hn." He seemed to take that into consideration. Then he reached out and grabbed my arm. I couldn't help gasping. His skin felt no warmer than mine. A little bit warmer, but only a little.

He pulled me out into the room and led me to a dressing table in the corner. "Now what do you see?" he asked.

I almost screamed but it came out as a loud gasp. The person in the mirror looked nothing like the person I'd once remembered looking at. My hair, originally in its pinned up ponytail, was now down and flowing---it was wavy, nearly down to my waist and a deep rich chocolate brown. My skin was like alabaster, nearly translucent. And the most shocking thing of all were my eyes, which were crimson and pulsating like crazy.

I turned to Natsume with a look of wonder on my face, hands on my freezing cheeks.

"What...what did you do to me?" I said, horrified, though I already knew what he was going to say.

He had a grim look on his face. "It was either this or death," he responded.

"But..." I whispered, turning back to the mirror to peer at my beautified reflection. "But things like this only exist in fiction..."

He laughed a low, harsh laugh. "Most people don't like to think outside the box," he said. He appeared in the mirror behind me. "There are some things that are in fiction that exist in real life."

I was still reeling from this sudden turn of events. "But...but..." I stammered. My voice sounded whimsical, beautiful---the sound to match my reflection. Even when I was trying to find the words to say and stammering my brains out while I was trying.

"Your people? Already forgotten about you." He took on a casual stance. "I wiped everyone of all knowledge of you."

"You did what?"

"Erased their memories." He sighed when he saw my slightly perplexed and irascible expression. "I forgot that you have absolutely no knowledge in this field."

"Wait, wait, wait." I held my hands up. "Skip all of this for a second. Where am I? That's the first thing I want to know. And why am I here? That's the second."

"Simple. The first answer is, you're at my home, which is now you're home as well. And the answer to the second one is..." He leaned down close to my ear, which made me shiver, and whispered, "I like the looks of you."

I felt my eyes widen, though I kept my face smooth. Thank god, because I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was a good thing in this new form, I didn't show my surprise and shock as easily as I normally did.

He chuckled, then leaned back. "It doesn't matter if you can't show it, because I can still sense it." He turned around, towing me behind him.

"What?" I said, confused. "I never said anything."

"Right, right." He gave a crooked smile. "I forgot about that, too. I can read your mind." He said all of this in a nonchalant way.

"You can...hear my thoughts?"

"It's a gift." He shrugged. "Most have gifts."

"Most of what?"

"Don't make me say it." He rolled his eyes at my stupidity. "Okay, let me clarify: most vampires have gifts."

"Wait a minute. Do I have one?"

"I don't know. Maybe we should have Alteria check."

"Who's Alteria?"

"Just a friend." He waved his hand. "So you really don't think I'm a vampire?"

"I never said that."

He rolled his eyes again and said something silently---probably a prayer to God. "Do we have to go over this whole mind-reading thing again?" He switched back to the topic at hand. "So you don't?"

"I just want proof, that's all. I mean, I find it very hard to believe that you just suddenly bit me in broad daylight, transforming me, then kidnapped me and brought me back here after you skillfully wiped everyone of all knowledge they had of me." I crossed my arms. "And for the new appearance, you could have just had someone give me a makeover. Someone who knows what they're doing can work miracles."

Natsume stared at me thoughtfully. "Good theory," he said. "But why would I even want to play a trick on you, when I hardly know you?"

"It could have been pointless." I jutted my chin out. "You could have been trying to mess with me."
"Okay, so you don't believe me." He was standing inches from the light streaming in through the window, but now he let go of my arm and stood in the light.

I gasped loudly, then swallowed convulsively to keep the string of profanities that my mouth was itching to scream from escaping. His skin, which had looked pale and ordinary in the shade, now sparkled and gleamed with the consistancy of a diamond. Though it still looked smooth, it was so...so beautiful I couldn't even explain it. There were almost no words to describe it.

He saw the surprise etched into my face---or my thoughts, whichever---and grinned. His white teeth gleamed, showing those two everloving fangs in the corner.

"You do it, too," he said impassively. "All vampires can." He reached out and pulled my arm into the light. This time a low mutter of surprise escaped me as I saw the same thing happen to my skin.

He smirked when he saw my expression. "You believe me now?" he asked.

"To the enth degree," I murmured as I gawked at my hand, glowing and bright. "But...what happened to the theory that vampires burst into flames when they hit the light?"

Natsume snorted. "Myths and lies thought up by depleted snots to entertain a sagging economy," he replied.

I laughed lightly, my laughter sounding tinkly and musical. His humor was fascinating. "True, true," I said. "Can you answer a few other of my questions?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Depends. Are you going to stay?"

I sighed. So difficult. But really, I had nowhere else to go.

"Good point. All the more reason to stay."

I was about to open my mouth and stupidly say that I never said anything when I remembered for the upteenth time that he could read minds.

"I'm glad you didn't," he muttered. I ignored him.

"Fine, I'll stay," I said. "But I just have one request."

He looked bemused. "And what is that?"

"Could we move out of the light?" I questioned. "It's starting to hurt my eyes."

He looked at me incredulously for a second, then did a slight laugh, the kinds that made you look like you were shaking.

Beautiful.

In one stroke of decision, it was decided that I was living there from now on.

I really had no reason to object. For one, it was true that I had nowhere else to go. If he really had wiped everyone of all memories that they'd had of me, then no one would recognize me if I just suddenly stepped back among the living. And I had no doubt that he didn't, to conceal my identity.

I hardly knew the guy, and look at all the things he had already done for me. Some people are just too kind.

For another reason, it would be equivalent to hitchhiking if I just asked for a ride home. Because, like before, I had no idea what area I was in.

And the last and most bothersome reason was that it seemed like I'd lost my memory. All of the things, way back then, back when I was a child, were all fuzzy, like the distorted picture on a television when you flip to a channel you don't get, but it faintly shows the picture. I couldn't even remember my parents. Or what I had been doing previously before I was changed. I saw no choice but to ask Natsume about it...since he seemed to know all.

"It's because you're a newborn," he told me. "You won't remember much about your human life."

"Excuse me?" I asked. "You called me a what now?"

"A newborn." He looked at me as if I were slightly insane.

"Like a newborn child?"

Natsume sighed; I could only imagine that he wanted to slap his hand against my forehead instead of his own. "No. A newborn vampire is a vampire that has just been created."

"Will my memory ever return, then?"

"We never know. It may return in little pieces or never."

"...Oh." It made sense.

"And there's also something else." Natsume walked over to the cabinet (we were in the kitchen) and opened it, pulling out a small cup. My nose twitched, and that burning sensation from earlier exploded in my throat. Whatever was in that cup smelled enticing, delicious, ambrosial...it took all of my strength to hold back from leaping at him and snatching it from his hands.

He swished whatever was in the cup around slowly. "Does it smell good?" he asked me---in a taunting way. Almost daringly. As if he was looking for a challenge from me.

I bit my tongue hard, forgetting that my new sharp teeth could pierce much easier than my original ones could. As my own blood leaked down my throat, it eased the burning a little. And in that simple maneuver, I knew.

"It's blood, isn't it?" I whispered ever so slightly. Because I was pretty close to snarling now. I didn't think that I could hold back any longer---but I did, clenching my fists tightly at my sides.

Apparently he'd had enough fun torturing me, because he set the cup down in front of me and threw a straw at me. "Here. Drink before you lose your control."

I slid the cup towards me so fast the liquid almost sloshed out. Then, not even bothering with the straw, I gulped it down eagerly. Slowly the burning in my throat calmed and ceased.

When I was finished and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, Natsume told me, "As a newborn you'll always be thirsty. Most can't control it, but..." He pursed his lips in skeptism. "You're the most controlled I've seen so far."

"So what do I have to do in order to keep this from going out of control?" I asked. Might as well gain as much information I could about this as I could, in case he wasn't around.

"You do what all vampires do. You have to hunt."

The thought of getting my hands dirty hunting down a human and sucking the life out of their neck made me wrinkle my nose in disgust, but the burning flared in my throat again.

"We don't hunt humans. To avoid leaving a trail, we hunt animals. And no, if you do it well, you'll come out spotless."

I nodded silently. "So when do we go?"

"Now. You're still hungry, because I doubt that that little cup satisfied you at all."

Actually I hadn't thought about it, but now that he mentioned it the burning came up again, more persistant than ever. Gritting my teeth, I said, "When you keep mentioning it you remind me. Remind me one more time and I might just accidentally rip your head off."

He laughed, and I'm sure I amused him just as he amused me.

Well, there you have it, folks :) The second chapter.

I kept it to a minimum, explaining what you (and Mikan, lol) needed to know to understand. The other good stuff comes later.

The next chapter...they go on THE HUNT! :o

More adventures await the deeper I get into the series. So keep on looking out, cuz it'll get better...I hope.

Also as I get deeper into the story their...err, I guess you could call them characteristics...will be revealed. Right now Natsume's playing the all-knowing informative guy and Mikan's playing the no-knowing idiot XD

Review and while you're sleeping, Mikan and Natsume will come into your room at night and turn you into one of them. :D (For the full effect, put some silver glitter all over you before you go to bed and sleep under your window XD Get the joke?)

Thanks for reading. You all get cyber huggies. :3

~Ariisha-chan