Mikan's P.O.V

I was sick. So terribly sick. Every muscle in my body ached. Every breath I took hurt. And the coughing, oh, the coughing just got worse. My body was trying to use my healing Alice, and it was killing me.

I knew I was dying.

Flashback

I was with Natsume, in his room. He had just gotten back from a mission, and he was hurting. He was hunched over, coughing like he was choking, when finally blood came out of his mouth.

"Natsume!" I yelled, hugging his side.

He leaned against me, his head hanging low.

"I thought you said that you were better," I said in a cracked voice.

"I lied." he said simply.

"Natsume, don't ever lie to me! You need to save your Alice! Its killing you. Natsu, if you die, I will too," I said, tears leaking from my eyes.

"Don't talk like that" he growled weakly.

"Nat, I love you and I need you to live. If your heart stops beating, then mine does too," I say, putting my hand over his heart. He looked at me, and rested his head on my shoulder.

"I will try to use my Alice as little as possible," he says to me. Like that will help. The process has already started.

That was the day I decided that I would do the missions for the man I loved.

Flashback end

All the missions that I had done for him had taken their toll on my body.

I wasn't going to Kid myself. I was dying because of my Alice and the fact that I was starting to feel again. I didn't have time to worry about the Gakuen Alice kids and how they were going to get stuck here. I didn't have time to worry about anyone. I didn't have time to worry about myself even. It was just trying to act like I was getting better in front of the boys.

I got up, and headed towards the bathroom, using the wall as my guide I shut the door, and locked up, making sure no one could come in and see what I had been hiding. Carefully, I unwrap the bandages around my torso. What I see makes me shut my eyes. It was gross, so gross. There was another item to add to my list.

I was dying of blood poisoning.

I rewrapped myself, and staggered down the hall to a room that I hadn't be in in quiet awhile. How selfish I had been the last few week! Not once had I come to see my dying 'brother.'

Quietly, I opened the door to Thief's room.

The room was completely dark, and all you could see was the main outline of the furniture. I heard incoherent mumblings coming from the bed.

"Hey, Thief. Sorry its taken so long for me to get here." I said. He flicked on the light, and looked at me with dull eyes. He coughed, coughing out the same substance that I was. He was like me. He was dying.

"Mikan," he said in an airy voice, smiling slightly. Then he got a good look at me. His face fell, like he was a child who had just been told that Santa wasn't real.

"Oh, Mikan, no," he said, shaking his head. I gave him a weak smile, as another coughing fit hit me, and a crack was heard, forcing me to my hands and knees on the floor and confirming what he didn't want to admit.

I was on the floor, breathing heavily, to weak to get up. I leaned against the wall, staring up at Thief.

"How much longer do you have?" he asked. I was silent. "Mikan?" he asked.

"Promise you wont tell anyone." I ask.

"Promise," Thief says.

"3 days." I say. Thief's face breaks out in a pained expression. I could see tears, yes, tears, welling up in his eyes. My boys, didn't cry.

"I don't want you to die!" he cried.

"Listen to me. You are going to live the life I cant, Thief. Go with the Gakuen Alice students, and you have that chance. Promise me you will," I say.

"But they are going to be stuck here, right?" he asks.

I close my eyes and breathe.

"Just trust me." I breathe. I crawl over to his bed, and climb in. He cries into my shoulder.

"Don't leave me!" he cries. I just pat his head. Eventually, his crying is cut short by a coughing fit.

"Can you feel?" Thief asks, after minutes of silence.

"A lot more. That one of the reasons Im dying." I say. He just give me a small 'oh.'

All day I stayed with him, both of us in and out of sleep, and in pain. I went back to my room, when I knew the boys would be home soon, and played it like I was getting better.

"How do you feel?" asks Hate as he feels my forehead.

"Better. I slept most of the day," I say, smiling lightly. He smiles down at me, believe the lie. All the boys fuss and fiddle with me, trying to make me comfortable. Eventually, they have to leave to go get ready for the mission, and I am left alone.

I take out my cell phone and dial a number that I never thought I would dial again.

"Hello?" said a confused female voice.

"Hotaru, can you come visit me?" I ask. She is silent for a moment.

"Yeah, ill be there in a bit," she says. The line then goes dead.

Minutes later, I am staring into her beautiful amethysts eyes.

"Hi," I say stupidly. She stares at me.

"Are…you okay?" she asks. I turn toward her and she is staring at my cheek. The one that has the faint word BAD carved into it.

"Hotaru….im….im dying." I say, avoiding her eyes. Her eyes go wide, and she walks toward my bed, sitting down on the ledge and jumping into my arms.

I didn't know what to do. She hugged me tightly, crying faintly. I closed my eyes and bit my lip, trying to hold back the pain gathering in my heart from seeing her cry.

"Don't leave me. I am so sorry Mikan. So sorry for treating you like crap and saying those things. I didn't realize. I was stupid. Please, please forgive me! Please don't leave me. You're my best friend. I don't even want to imagine life without you," she cried softly. This is the first time Hotaru swallowed her pride and said what she needed to say. I smiled down at her.

"I forgive you. Im dying and I need to convince everyone im getting better. I need your help. There is nothing that can be done. I love you, Hotaru. You're my best friend and you where always there for me." I say, my heart cracking at the emotion, but me swallowing down the pain.

My heart hurts, but there is a weight off my shoulders. Im not holding all the pain and resentment against them anymore. I was done with that. I didn't have the time or energy to waste on that anymore.

So I let it all go.

"What do you need me to do?" Hotaru asks, gaining composure again.

"I need you to be a leader. Keep everyone sane and in control. I also need you to get Thief on the plane and hidden until the flight has been in air for at least 10 minutes. Then, I-" I stopped. "I need you to slap Natsume when he needs it. don't let them know im dead, just tell them that they wont be seeing me again. The last thing I need is Narumi's number. Im going to need his help with phase two of my operation." I say.

"Phase two?" she asked, writing down a number on a piece of paper and wiping her eyes.

"It's a secret," I say.

She hugs me, we talk for awhile, before she leaves.

I fall back onto my bed, tired as can be and wishing nothing more then to be cuddled up next to Natsume, no matter how much my heart hurts from it. I need him, and that is a need that I cant suppress anymore.

As if he read my mind, he came walking in. We shared a look and he walked toward me, leaning down and pressing his lips on mine. I twined my fingers through his hair and he held me firmly, yet softly against him. We pull apart some time later, his fingers tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

"I missed you," he said. I nod and give him a knowing smile. My heart is pounding and cracking, emotions steadily leaking out. But I don't care. Im with the man I love.

I slept better that night then I had since I left Gakuen Alice. I knew what needed to be done, and I was going to do it. I could sleep in peace.

…

The next few days, it was hard to hide the fact that I was getting sicker and sicker. My body was wasting away and that I knew. It had been three days since I had talked to Hotaru and told her everything, and she visited me every day.

I had everything in place. The plane was here to take them back, and it, of course, had been tampered with so it wouldn't work. But it was going to. They were going home whether they wanted to or not.

I had talked to Narumi, telling him that circumstances required five more jumbo jets, because so low risk students where coming back. I gave him a freakishly believable, yet complicated story, and he bought it.

It was 11 o clock at night, and I knew that I had hours left. My room was completely silent. The boys were all in their rooms. I had told Natsume he couldn't sleep with me because of his flight tomorrow, and he got a pained look on his face at the fact that he was leaving, but I had told him that I would come home soon.

I think that he believed me. It was hard to tell, he didn't let emotions cross his face.

I crawled out of bed, and shakily made my way to the door. I needed to hurry. I sucked it up, and started moving faster, though ever bone in my body screamed in protest. By the time I reached the plane, which wasn't guarded at all. The people who run this place are total morons.

Oh wait, I do.

I fixed the plane, though it took me hours upon hours to do so. I was exhausted. My life was draining out of me. I managed to limp back to my dorm, my vision blurry, and my movements spastic. I heard cracking and yelped in pain. My emotions where being released, and that I knew.

I had hours and not very many of them.

For awhile, I did nothing but puke and cough, slipping in and out of consciousness. Natsume came in, and murmured a few words in my ears, but I couldn't understand any of them. The pain was unbearable.

I knew it was time.

I heard my phone ring and somehow I managed to pick it up.

"Where in the air and Thief is with us. I love you, Mikan. Thank you…for everything," Hotaru said.

"Yeah…Bye.." I said. I sat up, feeling that surge that I had been waiting for.

"Mikan?" I heard a voice say.

Oh no.

…

I am so sorry if you think this is abrupt, I cant force myself to write this story anymore. It makes me unhappy. Anyways, thanks so much for reading. Im thinking a chapter or two more to go. FEEL FREE TO TELL ME HOW DISAPOINTED YOU ARE IN ME! I KNOW I DESERVE IT! ANYWAYS thanks so much for reading regardless of how absolutely awful I am! Feel free to read my OTHER BETTER STORIES! lol, imma shut up now!