A/N: Enjoy!

Disclaimer:You already know the drill; I don't own blah, blah, blah…

Chapter 6 Mikan and Minako

(Normal PoV)

"ACHOO!" Mikan sneezes. "This is all your fault! Why did you have to stand under the rain!?" she says lying down on her bed.

"Why is any of this my fault? I told you to leave; it's you who was too stubborn to listen to me!" he says holding up a spoon full of soup in front of her face "Now drink, it'll make you feel better."

"There's no way I'm drinking THAT" she says pointing at the bowl full of steaming green liquid on the table. "It's green! And it smells like puke..."

"You don't have a choice; it's either this or starving to death… And besides don't you wanna feel better for the party tomorrow?" he says gesturing for her to open her mouth.

"Not if it means having to drink THAT. Who made it anyway? Not any of my chefs I suppose… I'd have to fire him otherwise…"

"I did, my grandma used to make it for me when I was sick… And trust me it doesn't taste half as bad as it looks…" she looks at him with a disbelieving look.

"Hmm… I don't know… does it really work? I mean I don-." He stuffs a spoonful of soup into her mouth. "HEY! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!" After a while of tasting it her expression softens "Well… It's not THAT bad… I guess it's okay…" they just sit there in silence for a while, the only thing that can be heard is the clock ticking, it marks 2:32 a.m. "So… why are you here anyway? You should be sleeping like the others…" she says trying to break the ice.

"Well I couldn't leave you here all alone when you're sick now could I?" he says handing another spoon soup to her. She stops it in midair and continues.

"It's just a cold… I'm alright, you don't have to worry about me…" she says turning her gaze away from his.

"Even if it is just a cold, I can't just leave a sick person like that…" he answers putting down the spoon into the bowl.

"I told you I'm fine, you should go before I infect you too."

"Hmm… I think I'll take my chances… Now don't be stubborn and drink the soup before it gets cold." He says passing her the bowl.

"I told you, don't worry I'll be fine, I'll drink the soup and go to sleep, so you don't have to stay here…"

"Why can't you just relax and let me take care of you? Why can't you stop trying to act tough? Just for tonight stop trying to be the bitchy Minako and be the real Mikan for a change… I swear I won't tell anyone…"

"But… you really don't have to do all of this… why do you bother so much to help me?"

"Umm… I don't know, aren't friends supposed to look after each other?" Mikan's eyes widen 'did he just say we were friends?'

"I thought you hated me…" she says doing her best not to face him.

"Correction, I hate Minako, not Mikan…" he answers matter-of-factly

"So that means you still do hate me! Then you have no business here go away!" she says and covers her head with a blanket.

He gently grabs it and pulls it away from her face. "I hate having to repeat myself so I'm gonna say this only once more and listen carefully. I said I hate Minako, NOT Mikan." She looks at him from the corner of her eyes and covers up to her nose with the blanket, leaving only her eyes outside to look at him.

"But Minako and Mikan is the same person, me…" she says in a shy tone.

"That's where you're wrong. Mikan and Minako are two completely different beings. I bet you remember when I first called you Minako…" he pauses and waits for her response.

"Yeah…" she answers "The other day at school when I called you Kazume…"

"Exactly… But then again I just called you Mikan at least three times, why do you think that is?" she blinks, not really understanding what his point is. Noticing her confusion he sighs "I guess the being dense part is not an act…"

"Well you're not making any sense! I am Mikan and you refer to me as Minako, so when you say you hate Minako that means you hate me! What difference does it make if you just started calling me Mik- Oh…" Apparently she had to say it out loud to be able to bring the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Do you understand what I mean now?" he asks picking up the bowl of now cold soup.

"I think you and Hotaru would make a nice couple…" she says

"Oh…" he turns his gaze away from hers "Why would you say that?" he finally asks. He knew he should've been glad to hear that, but for some reason he wasn't.

"Well you two think alike… Did you know that it was actually Hotaru who started the whole Miss. Popularity deal? She said that she and Mikan weren't the same person and that she didn't want to be acquainted with Miss. Popularity cause she had killed the old Mikan and said she was gonna stick with me to see if she could revive Mikan somehow…" she answers looking down letting out a sad chuckle.

"Well she's partly right… Although I don't think the "old" Mikan is dead, she was just locked up by the evil Minako…" he pauses to test her reaction (or lack of in this case) and decides to carry on seeing how she won't respond.

"It's like Minako is Mikan's clone right? But no one really knows about Minako's existence. Every day she keeps an eye on Mikan to check that she's okay, but then she notices that everyone is mean to her. So one day she decides to lock Mikan up in the highest tower in a castle at the cold peak of the highest mountain far away from everything so that no one can ever reach her and hurt her ever again, taking her place so that no one notices Mikan's missing…" Mikan smiles and cuts him off before he continues his story.

"That's just a fairy tale taken from some book…" she says plainly.

"No, no, let me finish, it gets better I promise…" he says and continues talking "And just in case someone dares to venture himself into those terrible blizzards and reach the dark castle… Minako leaves the castle guarded by a scary and ugly monster called… Umm…"

"How about "Fluffy"?" she says giggling.

"No, that's not a scary name… and besides you're not getting the whole point of the story at all…" he says rather annoyed by the fact that she isn't paying attention at the "story" he's telling her at all…

"What do you mean the WHOLE point of the story?" she asks confused.

"Anyway the name of the monster is "Bitchy"…"

"That's not scary either…" she says frowning…

"It doesn't matter… Now, if you could only pay a little more attention to what I'm saying…" he sighs

"Legend has it that one day a very strong willed, handsome prince will come to rescue Mikan from the tower, he will venture himself through the terrible blizzards, into the dark and cold castle, fight and the defeat the evil monster…" she interrupts him again.

"So what's the name of the mysterious prince?" she asks yawning.

"Well… That's for you to find out…" he answers smiling. "Can I carry on with the story now?" she nods and he continues talking.

"And so after going through all those hardships he will finally reach the top of the tower and enter a bright warm room, where he will find the long lost Mikan and as a reward for being able to go through all of those trials (thus earning Mikan's trust and making Minako disappear for ever) she will grant him a beautiful, honest and loving smile… And they'll live happily ever after… The end..."

When he notices Mikan's eyes are closed and that she fell asleep he smiles and pulls the covers from her side up to her shoulders. "Sweet dreams Mikan…" he whispers gently into her ear and leaves the room quietly so as not to wake her up.

Mikan blushes a little and smiles. 'A handsome, strong-willed prince huh?' she thinks before dozing off to sleep.

Natsume sits down on the couch, not really wanting to go to bed. He stares at the ticking clock on the wall. 2:53 a.m. It had been a really long day, a lot of things had happened, he should be tired, but he wasn't. He just keeps reliving the whole day again and again inside his head.

Let's sneak a peek shall we?

(Natsume's PoV)

And I thought my nightmare day was gonna be over when we picked up Ruka from the mall. I couldn't have been more wrong. After we were done there they dragged me all the way to the oculist and made me take an eye test. My sight is far worse than I thought it was.

So the oculist dude said my contact lens would be ready quickly as a personal favor to Mikan because her dad is I-don't-know-who and did I-don't-know-what for him. You know, that stuff takes time right? So I thought I wouldn't have them for like a long time, again I was wrong. I heard they would be done by tomorrow or something…

I was dragged around the whole city (blindly cause they never returned my glasses to me, she said that way I wouldn't be able to complain as much) Then we entered some place and they sat me down on a sort of weird chair, someone came from behind me and made me pull my head backwards and started wetting my hair and… well it was pretty obvious where I was at that point.

They moved me to another chair and I could hear the sound of scissors and I felt strands of hair falling off my head. I could hear Andou saying "Don't make him look like my clone!" and Ruka saying stuff like "Yeah I think it would look better like blah, blah…" I don't even know if Youichi was there or not… and as soon as the scissors stopped moving I heard Mikan saying "This is all wrong! We're gonna have to shave it all and buy a wig!"

My eyes widened and my jaw dropped I started feeling my head with both my hands nervously. I was seriously starting to panic when I felt a hand on my shoulder and I heard Mikan laughing.

"Just kidding… it looks descent…" she said in a mocking tone. I guess she went back to Minako-mode now that her friends were watching her. Two people grabbed my arms and pulled me out of the building. I heard the car's door opening and they threw me inside. They all got on and, I guess it was Mikan who drove because she had been the one driving up till now…

We went back to her "room" and one of them had the courtesy to hand me my glasses. Mikan placed eight bags in front of me. "Each one has a different outfit for every day of the week" she explained. I counted them again to check if I hadn't miss counted and there were seven… But there were eight bags, not seven.

"Umm… You know that there are seven days per week right?" I asked confused.

"Oh right!" For a second there I really thought she didn't, until she went on talking. "The eighth one is the outfit you'll be wearing for the party tomorrow night!" she said with a mischievous smile on her face. "Now, go on and put this on…" she said handing me one of the bags and pushing me into the bathroom.

I locked the door to prevent anyone from coming in and decided to take a shower to clear my mind a bit. I was done pretty fast and was about to change into the clothes she'd given me when I heard banging at the door.

"HURRY UP! What's taking you so long?! It's not like you had to make the clothes yourself!" she shouted. I chose to ignore her and started getting dressed. They were pretty normal clothes, just a plain pair of jeans, a bit tighter than my normal ones, a plain black button-up shirt, matching black shoes and a brown jacket. I buttoned the shirt all the way up, carried the jacket over my shoulder and went out of the bathroom.

When Mikan saw me she frowned, and walked up to me. "Really, I give you perfectly normal clothes and you manage to turn them into nerdy clothes…" she said annoyed and unbuttoned the first three buttons of the shirt. "Put the jacket on…" she commanded. I sighed and obliged… When I was done she walked a few steps back, nodded a couple of times and a smile spread through her face. "Great, now we just have to get the contact lens and maybe we could pierce your ears and…" Whoa what?

"I'm not piercing my ears…" I said bluntly.

"But you need a trade mark! I mean look around you! Tsubasa-senpai has the cool star tattoo on his cheek… Ruka-pyon has the childlike angelic face, and You-chan has the cold emotionless attitude! You need to have something to set you apart… I was thinking you could be the tough troublemaker, pierced ears would really give you-."

"I am NOT piercing my ears…" I repeated angrily.

"But…" she said making the puppy eyes.

"NO!" I said once again. She sneezed and frowned.

"Whatever I don't feel like arguing anymore… I'm going to bed…" she went into her room and slammed the door behind her.

She didn't feel like arguing? When did she not feel like arguing? Ruka and Andou looked at each other puzzled, probably wondering the same thing I was. Youichi looked at me with his usual face, although for some reason I felt like I could understand what he meant.

It was already midnight so everyone else decided to go to sleep. I stayed up and decided to make her the soup my grandma used to give me when I was sick. I guess I felt like I had to sort of apologize considering it was partly my fault she caught a cold.

It took me like an hour or so to make it, I couldn't find my way around her kitchen, though I guessed she couldn't either, she probably never used it in her life. When I was finally done it was almost two in the morning and I was wondering whether she was still awake.

I decided to go into the room anyway. And found her lying on the bed with the lights on, still awake.

(Normal PoV)

Natsume's eyelids start to close slowly and he falls asleep on the couch, his head resting on his hand.

In the morning Mikan is the first one to wake up. She goes out of the house and comes back a couple of hours later. She looks around to check if everyone is still asleep. When she confirms it she goes ahead and wakes Natsume up shaking him brusquely.

"Wake up! It's morning already and I brought you a present…" she says lowly not wanting to wake up the others. Natsume yawns and takes off his glasses; he rubs his eyes and puts them back on.

"I see you're feeling better…" he says still half asleep. She hands him two little boxes.

"Open them!" she says excitedly. Not feeling up to put up a fight he does as she says and opens the first box.

"I thought I said I wasn't gonna pierce my ears…" he says in a bored tone looking at the contents of the box. (A/N: Imagine the same types of earrings he wears in the anime and manga…)

"Don't worry, they aren't real… You don't have to pierce anything… Don't tell anyone though; it would ruin the illusion…" she says and takes them away from him and starts putting them on his ears. "There, looks good enough…" she says smiling.

"So I guess the other box is…" he opens it "Figures…" he takes out a little plastic container with the contact lens in it.

"So? Put them on!" she says smiling. He walks over to the bathroom and locks the door. He's still wearing the clothes from the night before but his hair looks messier. He combs it a little, but not too much or Mikan wasn't gonna stop babbling about him looking nerdy. He takes off his glasses and with a lot of effort manages to put on the contact lens.

He blinks a couple of times to focus his sight and when he finally gets a clear image of his reflection in the mirror his jaw drops to the floor and his eyes widen so much that they seem to be about to pop out of his head. His lips tremble and he rises both of his hands and starts feeling his face with his fingers, not recognizing the person in the mirror. When he's finally sure it is really him he tries to calm himself down and gets out of the bathroom…

A/N: Oh yes! I'm finishing chapter 6 here! Muahaha -evil laughter- what will be Mikan's reaction if even Natsume himself couldn't believe the change? What are the others gonna say? What will happen when they go to the party? Will the rest of the Alice Gakuen student body accept the "new" Natsume?

Anyway I really hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Read and review please! I love reading your reviews. Look forward to the next chapter!

To be continued…