Written by – Unknown Pain.
Disclaimer – I only own Gakuen Alice in my dreams… ¬¬

Not Alone

Dedicated to:
Euphraini
Because you deserve it.

-Unknown Pain-

Mikan cried as she sat there; in the mud, all alone.

Her favorite, white sundress was covered with dirt and that was their fault.

Why did they do this to her, she wondered, tears flowing down her red cheeks. What did she ever do to them?
Nothing, right?

Of course not: she wasn't someone who'd hurt other people just like that.

Soft, auburn hair fell in front of her face as she tried to stand up, to run away from this humiliation. But when she felt a painful sting coming from her left knee, she fell back down.

Mikan bit her lip and took a look at it to see what the cause of the pain was. She gasped loudly, seeing a deep, bleeding wound.

Watching the blood flow down slowly, she started to cry again, only this time louder than before.

Why was it always the same when she came to the playground? Why did they always hurt her, laugh at her when they saw her crying face? Why was there nobody to help her? Why was she always alone?

She wanted it to stop.

All of it.

She gritted her teeth, sobbing.

Now!

"Oi."

Mikan opened her eyes and blinked upon seeing a young boy standing in front of her, his raven hair covering most of his piercing, crimson eyes.

The two stared at each other for a while, before he asked her in a low voice, "What are you doing on the ground…?" To his displeasure, she didn't answer his question at all.

The boy looked at her from head to toe and slightly frowned. "Did you fall?" Instead of responding, she simply continued staring at him like he was someone from her dreams.

He sighed and knelled down in front of her, his gaze on her knee. "You're hurt," Mikan turned her eyes back to her bleeding wound and sobbed, blinking away the new tears that threatened to fall down.

His calm gaze shot back to her face. "Don't cry…" he told her in a whisper and with a slow hand, he wiped away the tear with his thumb.

She froze, but blushed at his warm touch and watched him stand up.

Mikan blinked as he reached out his hand for her. "Come." She stared at his hand, not sure what to do.

"Grab my hand, you idiot." He called her again, a bit impatient this time. Mikan swallowed, slowly grabbed his hand and gasped as he pulled her up with quite some force.

She bit her lip as he stared at her intently, before he raised his brow. "Can you walk?"

"H-huh..?"

He pointed at her knee in a bored way, his eyebrow still raised. "Oh…" the girl murmured as she glanced at her knee, and shook her head briefly. "N-no.."

The raven-haired boy sighed deeply and ran his hand through his messy locks, a bit of an irritated look on his face. She blinked in confusion as he turned his back to her, leaning a bit forward with his hands behind him. "Climb on my back," he told her simply yet lowly.

Mikan widened her amber orbs at this, surprised at what he said. "W-what?" He peered over his shoulder. "You heard me. Climb on my back."

She didn't know why he wanted her to climb on his back, but nevertheless she did what she was told.

The boy carried her with ease out of the playground, not saying a word. Mikan could feel a blush crawling over her cheeks, her heart pumping faster.

"W-where are you taking me…?" she asked slowly as she noticed that he hadn't put her down yet.

"Home," was his short answer.

Mikan widened her eyes in shock at what she heard. Home? Did he mean his home? Why would he do that? "W-why?"

"To take care of that wound of yours." His voice sounded bored as ever.

"Why...?"

The boy furrowed his eyebrows in a somewhat annoyed way. "You're asking way too many questions." She frowned. "We don't even know each other."

"Natsume."

Mikan blinked. "What?"

"Natsume," he repeated easily, his gaze fixed on the road he was walking on. "My name is Natsume."

She was still confused as ever. "Oh."

"Yours?" Natsume asked her, blowing away some of his raven locks that started to hang in front of his eyes. Mikan cleared her throat. "Uhh… M-Mikan."

"Alright, we know each other now, so stop complaining and just let me do what I want, okay?" he said in an annoyed tone, his eyebrows creased.

Mikan closed her mouth and just let him have his way, even though this was going way too fast for her. First she got pushed and got hurt. Then a good-looking boy from around her age appeared in front of her and helped her up. And then the next thing she knew, he was carrying her to a place she'd never even been to before on his back.

She didn't even know how this suddenly happened to her, or why.

But there was one thing that she really didn't understand, and it confused her the most. "Why are you doing this?" Her voice was soft and slow, her amber eyes turned to his back.

"Because I understand you," he answered back calmly, as soon as she finished her question. She looked up. "What..? What do you mean?"

"I know how you feel," Natsume explained. "There are people who always hurt you; laugh at your crying face. People who don't help you; a feeling of being alone…" Mikan widened her eyes, surprised. "Trust me," he continued. "I've experienced the same thing."

She clenched her fists on his back. "You did…?"

"I still do." His voice started to grow softer.

The young female cleared her throat slowly. "What does… that have to do with me?"

This time it took him a moment to answer her question. Natsume cleared his throat, his crimson eyes steadily fixed on the road as he picked the right words to say. She blinked a bit as she felt how his arms tightened around her legs, tightening his grip. "You still don't get it, do you?" Natsume's voice had his usual calm tone again.

Mikan raised her eyebrow. "Wha—?"

"You're an idiot for thinking that you're alone."

She stared at him upon hearing his words. It took her a while to finally understand what he meant. "Are you telling me that I'm not alone because… I-I've got you?" Natsume slightly furrowed his eyebrows. "That sure took you a while."

"So it's true?" Her voice started to get an octave higher. When he sighed and said the short, yet nice word, it was as if the pain stings in her knee started to fade away slowly, just like the pain that she felt in her heart. It didn't take long before her lip corners curled up into a beautiful, relieved smile.

Natsume stiffened as the female wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his back. "Natsume," she mumbled in his shirt, blushing a bit as she inhaled his scent. The boy peered over his shoulder, raising his eyebrow at her. "Hm?"

She was silent for a while, but soon tightened her grip around his neck and pressed her face a bit further in his back; her angelic smile could still be seen on her face.

"T-thank you…"

U-P – I saw once a boy who helped a girl after she got bullied, and he soothed her; it was even one of the most coolest bad boys of the school. When I saw that, I was really like, "… Whoah, what the hell..?" And it immediately made me think about Natsume and Mikan, and wanted to write this.

Michelle, I hope, although this isn't really your genres, that you still liked it. And good luck with school and all those other things that's happening to you. :)

I hope you all enjoyed reading this. Please review, and don't flame.

Much love,
Sam