Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice

A/N: Hello, and welcome to my first two-shot and also my first Gakuen Alice story! The main pairing is Mikan and Natsume. Any reviews or flames are welcome. Enjoy!

Chapter 1— Once Upon a November

I never did like fluorescent lights, and I never will. They peer over you and pester you with their ridiculous brightness. You wake up, take in the surroundings while bits of memories flash through your mind, and wish you hadn't woken up in the first place. From the white walls, I conclude I'm in the hospital; IV hooked up, heart monitor beeping quietly. I feel something warm in my hand. A dark haired boy is sitting next to my bed, his hand I realize is intertwined with mine, and another blond haired boy holding a rabbit is in a chair on the other side. Both are sound asleep and I breathe a sigh of relief. Falling off a building doesn't really get you in the mood to talk.

The flashbacks continue as I stare at the ceiling. Maybe I can go back to sleep, stop the flashbacks, I don't want to relive that moment ever again. Just as I'm closing my eyes, the door to the room opens; someone walks in, along with the slam of the door. Natsume and Ruka's heads shoot up, as if they hadn't been asleep at all. The nurse walks over to me, checks some things on the heart monitor and quietly asks how I'm feeling. Three pairs of eyes stare down at me. I calmly reply "fine." The IV is taken out of my arm, and the nurse leaves saying she'll be back in a while. Ruka also gets up, mumbles something about telling Hotaru I'm wake, leaving me and Natsume alone in the tense room. His hand is still intertwined with mine. I can feel his eyes on me, but I refuse to look at him.

"You scared me, you know that."

My mouth is glued shut. I turn my head and look at him. His emotions are hidden, as always, but I could have sworn I heard a tone of worry in his voice.

"Why? Why Mikan, why didn't you grab my hand" he tightens his grip on my hand as he says that.

"Because I didn't want to" I close my eyes.

"Didn't want to? Mikan, you fell off the dorm's roof! I saw you, and then suddenly you were off the edge, you fell head first into the ground, you cracked your skull open there was blood everywhere," I pat my head and feel bandages. So that's why there was something on my head, no wonder I didn't see my signature pig-tails on the pillow when I looked around. "You could have died!" I hear fear now along with some worry, even though he's raised his voice.

I opened my eyes and turned to him. A flashback popped into my head and my anger returned.

"Well, I'm not dead."

His eyes grew bigger and I could see anger in his eyes now, too. "Mikan, what are you saying?"

I felt tears swell up in my eyes as another flashback popped up; "I know what I saw! You and Sumire in the hall, I heard the whispers, and I saw what was about to happen! I—"

The flashbacks were everywhere now. They all came flooding back, the heart rate monitor beeped frantically just as the nurse, followed by Hotaru and Ruka appeared in the doorway. The memories were too much; I could feel darkness at the corners of my eyes. Maybe I should turn back and explain what happened. You see, it all started about six months ago…

It was late November; the tree's leaves were hues of red, orange, and yellow. I would sit under the Sakura tree for hours at a time, just thinking and watching the sunset. There was a lot to think about lately. Earlier in the week I was with Hotaru in her lab, she was replaying the video camera's she has planted everywhere while I was looking at what I thought was a tea pot. I tried to pick it up, but it slid out of my reach. This went on for some time before I finally had enough and walked over to where Hotaru sat. There were about 10 small screens in front of her, all with different views. I was watching the one in the middle, which had a view of the front of Hotaru's lab.

"Well, I guess nothing happened today." Hotaru said as she looked at each screen.

"You've looked at all of them" I asked. Each screen had a time on the corner of the screen; the times were all different, some in the morning while others ranged from 1 o'clock until now.

"All of them except this one" she pointed to the screen on the left of the one in the center, showing the Sakura tree. The screen was showing early in the morning around 7 o'clock. Hotaru turned a big dial and it began to fast-forward. Suddenly Natsume was sitting under the tree, reading his manga. The screen stopped fast-forwarding and I glanced at the time on the screen. It was happening now!

We watched for about 5 minutes before Ruka suddenly came up to where Natsume was. Natsume looked up and the two started talking. I could only hear a few words; "like her" and "still friends". I did hear one word very clearly; "Mikan".

"Turn the volume up! What are they saying about me? I swear if that pervert says one more comment I'll…"

Hotaru interrupted me, a small smile on her face: "You're a big threat Mikan."

I glared at her. She turned the volume up and we put our faces closer to the screen.

"…to tell her? I mean, does she have any idea?" Ruka asked. Natsume got up and they started to walk away from the tree.

Hotaru and I turned to look at the screen on the top right corner, which had a view of the walkway from the Sakura tree to the dorms.

"Not a clue. Everyone else knows already, I was hoping she would eventually figure it out. I guess I have to tell her myself."

"So when are you going to do it" Ruka asked.

Natsume put his hands behind his head and looked up at the sky. "I don't know."

They had reached the dorms and went inside, ending the conversation.

"Who was Natsume talking about" I asked Hotaru

Hotaru looked at me like she wanted to shot me with her BAKA gun. Too bad it was being repaired since I got so fed up one day and smashed it on a desk. It was the last straw to a very bad day.

She shook her head and went back to the screens, making sure all the times were the same. "You'll find out soon enough. It's almost dinner time, you should go, and I'm staying here tonight."

"Alright, see you tomorrow" I said as I slipped out the door. Natsume's words still floated around in my head as I made my way to the dorm. I had no idea why they had said my name or who they were talking about. But it sounded like Natsume liked someone and he was going to tell her. I felt a stab of jealously. I had liked Natsume since I came to the school, a whole 3 years ago. I had only told Hotaru, and she had a little knowing look on her face when I told her.

Now 5 days later, I still replay that day in mind, trying to figure out who Natsume was talking about. And of course I still feel jealous. The whole thing made my head hurt. The sun was setting and the sky was pink. It was probably going to get dark soon; I could miss dinner, I wasn't that hungry. I sighed and closed my eyes, leaning my head back against the tree.

I felt someone sit down next to me, and I opened one eye; Natsume was leaning his head against the tree and was looking at the sky.

"Oi, pokadots."

I opened both eyes and turned my face towards his. Talk about timing; I was going to finally ask Natsume about that girl he and Ruka were talking about. Well, maybe not today, maybe tomorrow. I looked back up at the sky. It was now orange and purple, the sun almost gone behind the horizon.

"It's beautiful, isn't it" I asked

He didn't reply and we sat there for minutes, neither of us speaking. I closed my eyes again. I had been out here for 5 hours now; it was probably dinner time. My eyes snapped open. I glanced sideways at Natsume. Wasn't he supposed to be at dinner? I voiced my question.

He looked sideways at me. I continued to look at him. And then, for a moment only, there was a flicker of anxiousness in his eyes. I blinked and it was gone, but I was so sure I had seen it. Was Natsume nervous about something?

"I…uh, I was just thinking…about someon-thing, I mean something." He turned his head and I couldn't see his face.

"Actually, I was wonderingifyoulikeanyone" He turned his head slightly as he said the last part really fast.

"What?"

"I…was wondering, if you like anyone" He looked at me now, and I could see he was blushing slightly. How odd! The Natsume Hyuuga does NOT blush. Maybe he was coming down with a fever. I leaned toward him and put my hand on his forehead.

"Natsume, do you have a fever! You look a little red."

This seemed to make the color deepen, and his eyes grew a little at how close I was now. He grabbed my hand and pulled it away from his head, but didn't let go of it. I looked down at our hands and then back up into his eyes.

"What, no. I don't have a fever. Mikan, look, I have to tell you…I" he took a breath, as if preparing to plunge into a cold lake "I want to know if you want to be my girlfriend"

I was so shocked I gasped, and then overcome by happiness that I threw my arms around his neck. He looked a little scared at my reaction at first; then he smiled. He has been smiling a lot I had noticed.

"Yes. Yes, yes yes yes yes yes!" I was grinning like the Cheshire cat. Then a thought struck me and I looked at Natsume.

"So that's why you were talking about me!"

Natsume gave me a confused look, "when was I talking about you?"

"To Ruka, on Monday about some girl you liked that you were going to ask out because she hadn't figured out that you liked her even though everyone…knows, wait a minute, everyone knows you like me, since when and where was I?" My eyes were probably huge with wonder; how long had everyone known?

Natsume chuckled, "You're so oblivious Mikan"

The sky was midnight blue with about a million stars twinkling like diamonds. It was the best night of my life. I reflect on that night a lot, I was so happy. I thought Natsume and I were going to be happy forever. I had no idea things were about to change.

A/N: And here I leave you with a little cliffhanger. Reviews are always appreciated. So if you loved it, hated it, just let me know!