A Brief Moment

Summary: A brief meeting, lasting only moments and a quick glance into each other's eyes…Will this be the beginning of something much bigger, or just become a forgotten memory of the past?

Rating: K

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice or any rights to it. Gakuen Alice belongs fully to Higuchi Tachibana-sama. (If I owned it do you seriously think it'd be as awesome as it is now? xD)

Note:This one-shot is kinda like the beginning for a story, but for now, I'm trying to get more of Music & Magic done.

'The wetness…I have to get rid of it, or she won't be happy…' the young girl thought as she rubbed her face with her hands, trying to clear the liquid. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her cheeks were stained with the hot, wet tears that ran down her face.

Behind her she could hear footsteps, but felt relieved by what she heard. "Let's go back now" "Yeah, she's probably scared to death now anyway. We should go home" she heard sounds of agreement and sighed in relief, leaning her back against the tree.

A little while ago, she had been skipping happily down the street towards her best friend's house, after school, when those few boys from a couple years higher than her, had pulled her over. One of them had shoved her back a bit, pushing her towards the tree line.

"Hey Orange, nice pigtails" one of them had said tugging on one of them. She squeaked in surprise and pain. The others came closer. The small girl held her small hands up in defense, falling back a few steps. Her auburn hair fell from the boy's hands as she did so.

The small girl shivered and looked at the boys, tears threatening to leak out of her big, brown eyes. "W-why are you b-being mean t-t-to me?" she asked, her voice beginning to shake. The boys laughed. "W-why are you b-being mean t-t-to me?" one of the boys imitated in a high-pitched voice that sounded nothing like the small girl.

"That's obvious" answered one of the boys. "You have no parents; you're stupid, weird- not to mention ugly, and you're also 'orange'". The girl couldn't hold back the tears anymore and they began to flow freely down her face. Taking a step backwards, she quickly turned and sprinted as fast as she could into the dark depths of the forest, hoping to get away.

She didn't look it, but the young girl was actually a very fast runner; the best her age. Her legs carried her deep into the forest before she realised she was actually lost. Finding a good hiding spot, she hid as silently as possible behind the tree, as the tears continued to run down her face.

That was what had happened up until now, and it had left the girl very confused. A few days ago, no-one had wanted to bully her, but over the last day or two, people had begun to ignore her and act coldly towards her, without showing any reason to.

Once she was sure the boys were gone for good, the girl stood up, attempting to brush the dirt from her skirt. The tears that were pouring from her eyes a minute ago were mostly gone, and her eyes were slowly beginning to turn normal. She looked around, trying to figure out which way she had come from , but it was no use, so she sat back down under the tree and waited.

She herself didn't know what she was waiting for, but she figured that if she waited in the one spot long enough, someone would come to take her home. She heard the leaves above her head rustle, causing her to look upwards. After seeing nothing, she brushed it off as the wind and started playing with her hair.

However, it had not been the wind. Directly above her, sitting on a branch that was hidden by leaves, was a raven-haired boy who looked around her age, with crimson eyes. He was hiding as well, but for a different reason than the girl.

For him, it was run or become a prisoner for life in some hellhole of a school called 'Gakuen Alice'. Naturally he was running. He and the rest of his family had chosen to run from the school, so he and his little sister would never have to go there.

If they were caught by the stupid scouts the school sent, they'd never see their family again, so normally the boy would be extra careful. But today, he'd made the mistake of going for a walk on his own, and now he was paying for it. Luckily, he had climbed the tree just in time. The pursuers hadn't seen him climbing, and he could hear them down below him.

"Damn. He got away again. Now what Narumi?" one of them asked his partner. The boy could hear them making their way around the tree. "Well, I didn't want to come here in the first place, so why don't we just go back and say that-" he was cut off, and I could hear a surprised squeak from below the tree.

I parted the two branches infront of me, and looked down at the ground, only to see the two men standing near a girl my age. 'Great, I managed to get an innocent girl involved' he thought angrily to himself.

He watched as the men drew closer to the girl who was cowering in fear. "Don't worry" the stupid-looking blonde one said to her "we won't hurt a girl as cute as you". A smile was on his face, as if trying to befriend the young girl. The boy was disgusted.

The girl gave a weak smile, and you could tell she was scared. "Are you lost out here?" he asked her. The girl nodded her head shakily. "Well, you should come with us, we'll help you get back" he told her. The boy quickly realised that the man was using his Pheromone Alice on the young girl, and was once again disgusted.

The girl shook her head fiercely, and stood up, backing away. The two men looked at each other in shock and curiosity. The boy was also feeling a bit of the same thing at the moment. "The pheromones…didn't affect her…" he mumbled to himself, wondering just who this girl was.

The blonde man looked at his partner in shock, and they both stepped back a bit, beginning to murmur. Mikan could hear little parts of their conversation, like, "…Nullification…just like that person…Alice…take her back…"

After a few minutes the two turned back to the girl and this time the black haired one stepped forward. "I'm Misaki" he said carefully "We need you to come with us" he said, watching the little girl.

Mikan shook her head and inched backwards, before hitting a solid object- the tree. The boy looked down in shock. 'Why are they after the girl? Could she be an Alice too?' he thought curiously.

The black haired man looked at the blonde one and they nodded. Misaki stepped forward and grabbed Mikan's arm, pulling her to her feet. Mikan flinched away from the man and attempted to pull her arm free, screaming. However, being a very young little girl, she stood no chance against the fully-grown man.

As they started to drag the girl away, Natsume made a decision. He swung himself down so that his hands were hanging onto the branch and he steadied himself. Looking closely at where the two men were he kicked his legs up and lifted of the branch, flying straight for the blonde man. After kicking him squarely in the head, the man crumpled to the ground and the black haired companion if his glanced around in shock.

Natsume opened his hand and a fire sprung to life in his palm. He lifted his hand higher and shot the flame at the man's head, hitting the man's hair. While the man desperately tried to put out the fire, Natsume punched him between the eyes, causing him to fall over backwards. The little girl, who had pulled her hand free during the chaos, stared at the crimson eyed boy in shock.

"Who…are you? What was that?" she asked, becoming more and more scared. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "It'll take too long to explain. Listen, if you run in that direction" he lifted his hand and pointed south "you'll end up at the nearest town- that's where you live right? You better get moving before they get up" as he spoke, the two men began groaning.

Mikan, who was still not fully aware of what was going on, nodded anyway and stepped backwards once more, towards the direction the boy had pointed. "What are you waiting for? Go" he told her, as he leapt up onto a tree branch. Mikan stared at the boy's crimson eyes for a moment, before doing as he said and running south.

The boy began to head off himself, but spared one last glance in the small girl's direction. 'Just who is she…?' he wondered, before jumping to a nearby branch and heading towards his own home.

The brief moment that their eyes had met, he felt something strange about that girl.

But that's all it had been.

A brief moment in time...

A faded memory…

That's all it will become…

But something changed that day.

Was it all fate?

Sorry, just another idea I've had that I felt the need to write :P

I am working on the fifth chapter of Music & Magic though, so don't worry if you are reading that.

Anyway, thanks for reading my story, please read & review so I know what you guys think.

~Singing Alice~

P.S. Sorry if it wasn't good, I'm not too sure about how this one turned out .