YAY!! Finally I decide to post my new fic. I really like this one, and personally I think I started off with a bang. lol I don't mean to toot my own horn but…. Well anyway, this is a classic story that has a not so classic story line. It's about the perceived impossible to have boy-girl friendship. Many believe that this sort of friendship is impossible because it always leads to something more.

Well I'm exploring that a bit with this story. The title: 'A Matter of Perception' says it all. This story has all to do with how Natsume views Mikan. He never saw her clearly when he was younger, and in a way he LITERALLY saw her as a boy. He knew she was a girl but he didn't see her as one, then all of a sudden that view of her changes completely. Now the only problem is, is that Mikan is already dating his other best friend, oh the twist the twist, lol.

I'm gonna try to tell the WHOLE story in Natsume's POV. If any of you guys have read my other work 'Conspiracy' then you'd know I tend to switch between characters a lot, and I don't want to do that. Why? Because the story is meant to be told ONLY from Natsume's POV. I'll try to control myself from switching to Mikan's POV no matter how tempted I am.

Summary: We've been friends since we were babies. I never saw her as a girl. But then one day out of the blue it hit me. She WAS a girl. And I fell madly in love with her. Only one problem. She dates my best friend and I was the one who set them up.

Chapter One: Love at First Sight…. Well sort-of

I was looking at a picture with a pair of scissors in my hands. In it are my closest friends, Mikan and Ruka with me in between them. Mikan and I have lived next door to each other all our lives, and have been friends since we've been in diapers. I never saw her as a girl; she was always just one of the guys. Our parents used to joke that we were destined to be together, but both of us would gag at the very idea. To me it'd be like going gay getting married to a guy, to her it'd be like marrying her brother.

We met Ruka when we were 13, and he and I instantly hit it off and became best friends. He and Mikan had a different reaction to each other. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that the two liked each other so I set them up, and it worked. They've been dating for 3 years. I never had a problem with it…at least not until recently. I never saw Mikan as a girl before last week. Then it hit me like a brick to my head. I saw everything at once like I had been blind all my life and were seeing for the first time. She was a girl, and I fell madly in love with her.

I took the scissors and cut Mikan and I out, and placed us together. Vindictive? Normally I'd agree with you but I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't stand him being with her, touching her, kissing her. It made me want to die.

So how did this all happen? How did I make such a massive transition in such a short time? Well for the answer let's have a look back and see then.

"Mikan. Mikan. MIKAN!….GET YOUR ASS UP!" I yelled to my best friend putting a bullhorn near her ear. She jumped up in fright and landed on the floor with her bed sheets tied around her ankle. I would laugh...if this wasn't an everyday occurrence.

"Owww Natsume I think you might've blown my ear off this time." she said rubbing her ear." I rolled my eyes. "Just hurry up and get ready, if you're not ready to leave in fifteen minutes I'm leaving without you." She looked up at me incredulously, "You wouldn't dare." she said. I never had left her behind before, even at the stake of being late and getting locked out of school. Our school has adopted this weird system that after the second bell was wrung, they no longer allow students in. Stupid? Yes. But Affective? Also Yes. Now all the morons like Mikan hurry their asses a little more. "Do you really wanna try me?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

Without answering back, she ran into her bathroom. I proceeded to exit her room to give her a little privacy. I went downstairs to my second parents to eat the food they had there. "Hey Natsume. Did you wake my lazy daughter yet?" I nodded, "She just got into the shower." I said. Mikan's mom handed me a plate of her blueberry waffles. I've gotta say, even though over the years I'd been dubbed Mikan's royal waker-upper, it was all worth it to get her mom's breakfast. "Thanks." I said and dug in.

After a while, Mikan still hadn't come down. Usually by this time she'd be running down the stairs with elephant-like steps, shoving her food in her mouth like a truck driver, and we'd have run to make it to school. "Natsume, I suggest you go upstairs and knock on her bathroom door, she probably fell asleep in the shower again." her mother said shaking her head. I snickered a bit and headed upstairs. It was so like Mikan to do something like that.

I walked up the stairs and opened up the door without knocking. My eyes widened, and my jaw became slack. I felt my breathing become jagged and my heart speed in my chest. There was Mikan in nothing but her underwear in front of me.

Now I had seen Mikan's underwear before, but that was when we were nine, and flipping a girl's skirt in revenge was still a common thing to do. But we weren't nine, we were sixteen. And she wasn't wearing rainbow polka-doted panties, she was wearing black lace. And she looked amazing. More than amazing, she was beautiful.

I felt my cheeks turn red as I heard my own thoughts running in my head. 'What am I thinking, this is Mikan we're talking about. MIKAN! This is the same girl who I played in the sandbox with. The same girl who I rescued from bullies in the second grade. The same girl who I traded snacks with at lunchtime. And I was thinking about her this way.' I shook away those nasty thoughts.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity the idiot decided to turn around while she was in the process of putting her T-shirt on. Giving me a full view of her sparsely covered chest. Her face flushed bright red and she threw the nearest thing to her at me-her useless alarm clock- and yelled, "GET OUT!"

Without wasting another moment I ran out into the hallway, breathing heavily. I ranked my hand through my hair and pulled on it. 'What just happened?' I asked myself. My heart wouldn't stop beating and I couldn't shake the image of her like that out of my head. 'What's going on with me.' I said shaking my head clear again.

Then the door opened a slowly, and Mikan shyly walked out of the room, with her cheeks red and her head low. "You usually wait for me downstairs." she whispered. I didn't look up but then said, "You were taking longer than usual. I thought you fell asleep in the shower." She raised her eyes a little, "Actually I did, but I woke up on my own. That's why I was still changing." she said.

It was quiet after that, and neither of us uttered a sound. I glanced at my watch. My eyes widened. We had less than ten minutes to get to school. I grabbed her wrist and began running. "N-Natsume?!" she stuttered tripping over herself as she tried to keep up. "We've got less than ten minutes to get to class." I told her. After I said that she began running on her own. "Bye Mom, Bye Dad, Love you." she called as we ran passed them out the door.

Mikan and I somehow managed to make it to class just as the second bell rang. We were panting hard and we both collapsed on the classroom floor. "That's –pant- a new record." she breathed out. "I know." I breathed also.

Then came Ruka. "You okay you guys?" he asked helping Mikan up. She smiled a huge smile at him. "We're fine, just ran a bit later than usual." she said. She gave him a kiss on the cheek. I felt my body burning. My eyes narrowed and my jaw tightened. I felt myself gritting my teeth. "Natsume, you look hilarious." a voice called out to me. It sobered me immediately. It was Koko. I shot him a glare and he shut up.

I made my way toward my seat at the back of the room. Ruka and Mikan sat in the row right in front of me. At first our assigned seats were that Mikan and I were the ones who sat next to each other, but after the teacher came to recognize us, Ruka and I switched so that I sat alone. It was never a problem. So why did I feel so antsy now?

During class I found myself growing more and more irritated as time went by. During lessons Ruka would do things varying from holding Mikan's hand to playing with her hair. Did they know that they were doing this for the world to see? Did they know that there were probably hordes of people distracted and staring at them?! I glanced around the room. Every pair of eyes was either on the board or closed and asleep.

Was I really the only one bothered by this. Then it hit me. 'I never had a problem with them doing this stuff before, so why now?'

I was on the rooftop. I was cutting my sixth period class, but at the time it hardly seemed to matter. I had more important things to do then to be in Spanish. I didn't get it. What was wrong with me? I kept on staring at Mikan all day today. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. I was looking at her doing everything. Twirling her hair when she was bored, biting her pencil eraser when she couldn't get an answer, watching as her eyes dazed into space. Suddenly I became the expert on her features. I realized her eyes weren't brown. They were hazel. And I realized her hair had streaks of blonde in it. But why was I seeing these things now of all times. Why couldn't I think of anything else?

You like her...

I glanced up shocked, and looked from left to right. Where did that come from? I paced. Pftt. Yeah right. The day I like Mikan is the day the earth stops revolving around the sun.

You REALLY like her...

Where the hell was that voice coming from?! It was saying such ridiculous things. How sick would I be to fall for a girl who should be like a sister to me.

You're right, that is pretty sick...congratulations!

Alright now I was getting pissed off. This voice or whatever it was, was not only asserting the impossible, but it was insulting me too.

Haha! You're the one insulting yourself moron.

I drew a blank at that. I didn't get whatever this voice/spirit thing was trying to say.

I'm you, you dufus!...God for someone so smart...

Wait a minute…If that's true, then not only was I holding a full length conversation with myself but…

DING DING DING Congratulations, you figured it out.

…I fell in love with my best friend.

Today it was as if I was seeing her for the first time. And it was love at first sight.