GAMES AND FRIENDS

'Oh shut-up already' Mikan shouted at the alarm clock that wouldn't stop ringing. No matter how many times she tried she couldn't get it to stop. 'That was it.' She took the alarm clock and threw it out of her window. She turned back to her task of stitching a loose button back on to her shirt when she heard a painful cry. She looked out of her window, and then ducked back down when she saw her dorm mother Miss Selena throwing the pink alarm clock against the wall; this was her way of taking out her anger. Mikan cursed herself for not looking before throwing the heavy alarm clock down onto Miss Selena's head.

Natsume walked back to his dorm enduring the painful task of listening to love vows directed to him. Even though there were a lot of nice looking guys in the night class the majority of the girls came there for him. He felt neither pride nor happiness only irritation. He walked towards the Moon dorm with an indifferent expression when the polka dot girl caught his eye. He saw her struggle to the front of the crowd. He stopped and looked at her and everyone in the night class stopped. He looked at his object of interest and smirked. Just that was enough to draw evil glares from other girls around her. He resumed walking and the other night class students did the same. Natsume received a sceptical glance from his brother and in reply he just ignored it.

Mikan was surprised; no shocked. She never thought he would acknowledge her in any way in public. She knew the night class students kept to themselves. They never spoke to the day class apart from events that required both sets to gather together. Even if it was any other guy from night class and Mikan wouldn't have been that surprised but after everything she had learned about Natsume from her friends during her short time in the academy was enough to startle her to see such an act from him. He was unsociable among the night class. He had an air of superiority to everyone around him. Just one look or glare from him was enough to make anyone shiver. Most students in the night class listened to him apart from a handful. Even in joined events he never seemed to appear or even if he did his angry expression kept the day class girls away from him. Despite all, his striking features made most girls admire him and for some even crave him. Based on this info he was known as 'the night prince'.

Mikan sat in the class not sure whether to feel nervous or happy at the greeting she had received that morning; if that could be called a greeting. She walked out of class deciding against going to see the night class students walk to class. She entered her room and kicked her shoes off. She was about to unbutton her shirt when she suddenly felt cold. The hair on the back of her neck stood up when she saw her window open. She knew for sure that she had closed it this morning. She took a step towards the window when the noise of something breaking made her jump and scream. She turned and collapsed to the ground on her knees with relief when saw Natsume standing next to the broken vase. 'Yo' he said. 'You did that on purpose' she said a little breathless. 'Did what?' he asked casually. 'Breaking the vase, to scare me.' 'I never did it on purpose, I didn't notice it. But now that I know you get scared so easily I might break things more often.' 'What are you doing here? You are not allowed in and I didn't invite you this time.' 'I invited myself.' He said walking towards her. 'You can't do that. I mean just coming into a girl's room like that.' 'You want me to leave then.' 'No, just stay.' she said getting up.

Mikan felt nervous at the start but that slowly descended into boredom. It had been nearly an hour and they hadn't even had much conversation. He just sat there looking through her books and novels. She had to say something. 'Yeah so Natsume' she started. 'Hmm' was all she got. 'I was wondering why you take an interest in me. I mean you usually don't care much about girls in general so...' 'Why, do you have a problem with that?' 'No, not really but you look like the type of guy that dislikes girls in general.' 'I'm straight if that's what you want to know.' 'I know that I just meant ... forget it.' She said suddenly feeling stupid. 'They are real pests. It's like they have nothing else to do than pry into other people's lives.' he said sounding annoyed. Mikan suddenly felt angry that he referred to all those girls as pests. 'You know I know it's annoying when they take pictures without permission and that type of stuff but they do have sincere feelings you know. So don't call them pests.' 'Oh yeah I forgot you were there this morning too.' He said looking busy in a book. She suddenly felt embarrassed. 'Are you trying to say that I'm a pest' she exclaimed. He looked up at her and shrugged 'I don't know' he said. She stared at him for a while and said 'Natsume I'm not a pest, I'm your friend.' 'Who decided that?' he asked giving her his full attention. 'I did, I mean we talk to each other and considering someone like you who doesn't talk to people easily I think I'm a friend.' She said confidently. 'Your logic is amusing.' He said looking back into the big book.

Mikan turned to get a bottle of juice when she realized that Natsume and she had never had a proper conversation. Though she knew she liked him, somehow she always ended up arguing with him. 'This way he's going to get bored of me. I need to be myself and not let nervousness get the better of me' she thought. She turned back and saw him get ready to leave. She marched over to him and stood in front of him blocking his way to the window from where he left. She had a very determined expression. 'What are you doing' asked Natsume. 'I...I have decided that I'm going to talk to you a lot and get to know you more and by Christmas we will be inseparable buddies.' A chuckle escaped Natsume. He looked at her his one eyebrow raised. 'Okay, the first step to being best buddies is getting to know each other and we are going to do that through a game.' She said enthusiastically. 'What game?' he asked sounding bored. 'I'll say a word and you have to say the first word that comes to your mind. No thinking just answer the minute you hear the word.' She explained sounding excited. After looking at his expression she said 'lets give it a try, okay.' They both sat on the ground. Natsume sat leaning against the wall; one knee propped up. Even though he could read the girl's mind her thoughts didn't make sense. She sure was weird. He had never thought he would speak to a human this much. 'Well maybe not all humans were stupid' he thought. In the past three hundred years this was the first time he had taken any initiative to speak to a human. She has good luck or by now with his craving for her blood she would have been drained of life long back. Come to think of it there was nothing interesting or special about this idiotic girl so he didn't understand the difference in her blood. 'Okay let's start' she said after answering a short phone call from her dad. 'FAVORITE COLOUR' she shouted. 'RED' Came a bored answer. 'COUNTRY'- 'ROME'. 'LOVE'-'OVERRATED'. 'FOOD'-'BLOOD'. At this answer she looked inquisitive but let it pass. 'MIKAN'-'IDIOT' he replied. She pouted a little at this but didn't comment. 'Your turn now' said Natsume. Surprisingly he was getting interested. 'Okay' she exclaimed sounding a little too happy. He decided to shut off his mind –reading abilities for a while to make the game interesting. 'BLOOD' he asked. 'RED' she replied. 'FOOD'- 'KNIFES'. 'LOVE'- 'YOU'. Her face was crimson red at this but Natsume didn't stop. 'FRIENDS'-'EMINEM.' 'HOBBY'-'SHOWER'. She looked surprised herself at her senseless answers. Natsume found this game amusing so he decided to keep at it.

'FLOWER'-'ROSE'. 'MOTHER'-'FAT'. 'FATHER'-'GAY'. She looked embarrassed and looked like she wanted to stop but he paid no attention. 'SCHOOL'-'FOOD'. 'NIGHT CLASS-VAMPIRES'. At this he stopped and looked curiously at the girl. 'I didn't know what I was talking about. Half of those answers are not true. My mom is not fat and my dad is not gay.' She said sounding a little annoyed at herself. Natsume didn't bother asking anything else since he had his powers back on and he learned from reading her mind that she thought Shiki looked like Edward from Twilight explaining why she related Vampires to the night class. 'Hey Natsume, do you like Twilight' she asked beaming. 'No' he replied. 'I think Vampires are kinda cool. I mean wouldn't you love to live forever and sparkle in the Sun.' she asked excitedly. 'Living forever sounds boring and sparkling in the sun sounds disgusting.' He said as he walked towards the balcony. 'Hey wait, are you leaving already.' She asked with a tint of sadness in her voice. 'I'll come again' he said and jumped out of her window. She was amazed at his ability to jump from such heights. 'He must have been a high jump champion in sports.' She thought as she went to brush her teeth.

Natsume sat on his bed with a glass of blood in his hand. He looked at the wine glass and his grip around it tightened as hated memories came flooding back to him like they did often. His grip tightened around the glass until it shattered and blood stained the cream carpet. He never liked these blood tablets anyway. He looked at his hand as the cuts closed back again. He undid the buttons of his shirt and sat in darkness. Everything was covered in pitch black as his eyes glowed red and he whispered 'Mikan'.