Disclaimer - All Gakuen Alice characters belong to Tachibana Higuchi
5 - The Black Cat
Mikan hated seeing Natsume when he had to wear his black cat mask, she hated the fact that the Academy made him wear it, and she hated that he grew distant when he had it on. Sometimes she would see him under the Sakura tree, lying on his back and staring up at the cherry blossoms through the small eye holes, his chest moving up and down with each breath he took. Whenever she saw him like that, she made sure she went over to him, sat down beside him and asked if he was okay. He always said the same thing, "I've got a headache, Polka dots. Leave me alone." But she never did leave, instead she talked. It was constantly a one way conversation, and every time Mikan would tell him the same as the time before, and the time before that, "My grandfather always told me to watch out for black cats… He said they were unlucky, just like most other people do. When I first saw you, when you were in that cat mask, I thought the same thing, I thought you'd be unlucky, but I was wrong, Natsume; you're not unlucky at all. I'm glad I met you, and became friends with you, even if you are a mean pervert." He never replied to her, but watching the red of his eyes, sometimes she thought he was smiling, hidden under the mask.
"Are you afraid of me?" Every so often he would ask her that question, sitting up and facing her, the cat mask looking threatening as it hid all his features except his blood-red eyes, "I have to wear this god-damned mask because I'm a threat, because my Alice is too powerful. I could hurt you, you know… I'm strong enough to activate my Alice even with this stupid thing on." Mikan would just laugh at him, shaking her head and waving her hands in front of her slightly, eventually calming herself down enough to tell him that she wasn't scared of him in the slightest, and that she knew he would never do anything to harm her. He would then remind her he had a headache, and she'd sigh loudly before moving closer towards him, placing a small kiss on the mask where she assumed his mouth was, before getting up and leaving, knowing that she would go to him every time he had the mask on, and also every time he didn't.