Natsume, don't leave

Mikan, she was so broken. She looked so alone, so crushed, so... hopeless. As if she's lost all her life now, as if she's lost all of her own will.

She was surviving only off the will of others when she figured out my secret.

"Natsume... are you the same?" Mikan, she looked looked up at me with her beautiful eyes, not wide or shocked, but with a small spark of possibility in them; my soul felt torn away.

"Ba~ka. I won't die." I held Mikan close, my heart drumming, holding her hand over my heart... what would happen when I leave? What would happen to her? If her mother took such drastic actions... would she put herself in danger only to save others, and then fade away like a wilting flower? Would I never see her face again, and neither would others? Would she change so much...

"Mikan, don't be sad."

"How can I not be?" Mikan asked as she looked up with wet, blurry eyes. A pang of guilt pounded my heart.

"Forget about me."

"What?"

"Forget... please, Mikan, how can I leave you like this?" She hugged me closer, and I felt more of her precious tears slide down her face.

"Then just... stay. Natsume, don't leave."

"I... won't."

"You won't?"

"No." I placed a hand on her auburn hair. "I won't."

"Promise?"

"No, but I'll do my best." I can't lie to her, not her. I've lied to so many people, so many times...

"I'm fine."

"I'm fine."

"I'm fine."

"Can I please... have your Alice?"

"What?"

"Natsume, let me have your Alice, then you can stay," Mikan tried to clarify, but I still wasn't sure what she meant. "If I steal it... then it won't hurt you anymore, will it?"

"Mikan-!"

"I'll take all of it, so you won't have to suffer so much anymore. You've suffered all your life..."

"Mikan, stop." I gripped her shoulders with both hands and pulled her away, looking her in the eye. "Stop."

"But-"

"Mikan." My sunshine, I cannot let you be burned away. Not for me, not for anyone.

I removed my hand from her shoulder and lifted her chin towards my face. Slowly, giving her plenty of time to pull away, gave her a lingering kiss on the corner of her mouth. A warmth and calmness like the familiar sunshine I feel just being with her seemed to fill me, until I couldn't stand it anymore.

I moved my face over and kissed her lips. Mikan looked frozen for a second, her tears swirling in her eyes slower and slower. At last, after what seemed like hours to me, Mikan pushed herself forward, closer to me. I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and hugged her to me, and she wrapped her arms around my back, until there was no way for one of just to simply let go and run away unless we both decided to let go.

And we wouldn't.

A/N: Eh, I just re-read chapters one hundred+ to about chapter one hundred-twenty of the Gakuen Alice manga... yeah, I felt like crying again. :'( To vent out my feelings, I wrote this. Now, though, I think I just feel worse. The irony.