Disclaimer: Gakuen Alice belongs to Tachibana Higuchi, not me. This fic is copyrighted, however, by me.

First Smile

He was the first student in the entire academy to smile at Mikan Sakura.

Not even her best friend, Hotaru Imai, smiled upon her arrival.

Yuu Tobita was the first person to fall in love with her. He fell in love with her as soon as he saw a smile grace her angelic face.

Even though Natsume Hyuuga had seen her first, all he did was harass her, to say the least. Of course, he fell in love with her too, but it took him while to notice what Yuu Tobita had noticed about her in seconds.

Then there was the gentle Ruka Nogi, who also had feelings for Mikan. Whereas Natsume showed his feelings for Mikan by picking on her, Ruka would only blush whenever she came in sight.

Yuu thought he was quite ahead in the game of winning Mikan's heart. He helped her study, and he helped her with chores. He was always there for her whenever she needed a hand, and never teased her unlike many of her other peers.

But on the Christmas night, when both Ruka and Natsume kissed her, Yuu couldn't even bring himself to hold her hand.

Eventually, they both confessed their feelings to her. About how much they loved her and about how happy they felt when they were with her.

Yuu had always convinced himself that the reason he never held her hand, or confessed his feelings was because he was being polite.

The real reason, though, he knew, was that he was afraid. He was afraid she would pull her hand away when he tried to hold it. Tell him that she didn't love him and reject him for someone else. Somebody more handsome, more mysterious, like Natsume or Ruka.

So he always hid his feelings behind his smile. Behind a smile like the one he gave her the first time he saw her.

One day, when Yuu was helping Mikan with her homework, she asked him a question.

"Iincho?" she asked, "Do you think I should go with Natsume or Ruka?"

He wanted to say "Mikan, I love you. Forget about them, I want you to be with me."

Obviously, he didn't. Instead, he mumbled, "Just follow your heart, Sakura-san."

At that moment, Yuu realized that he hadn't even got past using the "-san" honorific with her, let alone not using any honorifics at all.

"But Iincho!" Mikan replied, "I love them both so much! How can I follow the path my heart wants to go when it's stuck at a fork-in-the-road?"

Yuu really wanted to say that he didn't know, because he only loved on girl who never loved him back. And that no one ever loved him in the way that he loved her, yet alone two people. But once again, he simply said:

"What an interesting analogy, Sakura-san. I'm sure you'll figure out who you want to be with. I think you know more about your feelings than you think you do."

Then he smiled, the way he always smiled. The way he smiled the first time he saw her. And she smiled back, with the very same smile the gave on the day he fell in love with her.

THE END

(A/N: At some point near the beginning of the manga, Tachibana Higuchi wrote that Yuu Tobita "fell in love with Mikan at first sight", so I wanted to elaborate on that, since it was never really brought up at all in the manga. Anyways, please review, and tell me what you think!)