Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice

Warning: Characters might be a bit out of character (OOC)

Misattraction 1: Beginning of the Bridge

"…when the other party is in a state of fright and he see you, he will fall in love with you."

—urbandictionary

"P-Please hurry up; I need to close the classroom door." Mochiage nervously tapped the watch on his wrist. Natsume looked at the almost-bald headed student. He just picked up his pace and left the room. He began walking towards the direction of the library.

Natsume Hyuuga was actually not the most popular kid in school. In fact, he may be infamous, but he was practically almost invisible. Having fire as an Alice was not considered as anything special, and it didn't attract him any attention from the students to himself. However, it certainly attracted the higher-ups. Almost everyone called him terrifying, pyromania and finally an outcast because of the rumor that he single-handedly burned down a village. No one wanted to get close to him.

Natsume looked around him. He was surprised to see himself in front of the door leading to the rooftop. He shrugged and thought that maybe going to the roof top was a good idea. He opened the door, and his eyes widened as he saw a girl standing on the edge of the rooftop. The wind played with her brown hair which was tied into pigtails. She had an elementary school outfit just like Natsume, but of course she was wearing the girl's outfit opposite to Natsume's boy's outfit. The Sakura petals went with the flow of the air around her. It was like she was inside a movie; better yet, a work-of-art painting.

Her feet started to move as if she was about to jump off, and so Natsume unconsciously began to move. He didn't have the time to think, but he felt his heart racing like mad. His palms became sweaty as he was scared of the thought that he wouldn't make it in time. He ran towards the mystery girl, and grabbed her by the waist.

They fell back to the roof top floor. Natsume landed on his back, and the girl landed on top of him. He closed his eyes as he felt the pain. The girl groaned which made Natsume aware that she landed on his stomach. She was really light.

He opened his eyes and as clichéd and unbelievable as it sounds, his heart was still beating furiously. His face flushed. Everything seemed to have gone in slow motion. The girl lifted her head revealing her chestnut colored eyes that complimented her hair and her face. The Sakura petals danced around them as the wind blew gently. She blinked a few times.

"What are you doing?" The girl looked puzzled. "Students are not allowed here…"

"You're also a student," Natsume muttered to himself. "I thought you were jumping off…" His voice trailed off. "What are you doing?"

"Silly boy," She giggled. "I was playing with Ruka-pyon, and I was supposed to grab hold of the ring carried by his eagle. I was told it was thrilling,"

"Oh," Natsume heard everything, but he was more conscious of the emotions he felt and his flustered face. Did she notice it? It seemed like she didn't.

"Anyways, thanks for saving me, my hero." She laughed again as she stood up, "Oh, are you hurt?" She lent him a hand to hold on.

Natsume accepted the mysterious girl's help as he shook his head. He held her hand, but as she did, electricity went running inside his systems. "The name's Mikan Sakura." She introduced. "Call me Mikan. I hate the honorifics and the formality."

"I'm—" Natsume was about to introduce himself when a golden haired boy fell down from the sky and landed on his feet.

"Sakura, what happened?" He looked worried.

"This guy happened," Mikan laughed, "anyway, it was all a misunderstanding; please do wait for me at the other end." She walked towards the edge of the rooftop.

"What him?" The boy looked at Natsume from head to toe. "Ruka Nogi," He introduced, "nice to meet you." Ruka smiled and then whistled. An eagle swoop down, Ruka jumped and got a hold of the ring, and they left.

"See you later kid," Mikan jumped off of the top and then a few seconds later, she ascended into the sky. She was laughing by herself, obviously she was overjoyed. "Wheeee~"

Natsume stared at her enchanting face. She seemed so care-free and happy. Unlike him she was contented. Rather he wanted to leave the Academy, because of some particular reasons, and he didn't quite enjoy his school life. He never knew who she was from the way she looked, but the name Mikan Sakura was quite popular, sadly not on the academics department. He gazed on Mikan's direction until she disappeared. His heart calmed down, and it didn't seem like his face was still flushed. It was his first time to feel that way. Natsume looked at the hand that held hers. He felt nothing, but he could recall the electrifying experience.

…

The next morning, when home room started, Natsume's eyes widened. Mikan was one of his classmates. He didn't notice since he hardly looked up from the books because he was always reading his Manga. Sometimes he would just look outside of the window, ignoring the idiots around him. He just assumed that they were idiots or some of them at least.

His eyes followed Mikan as she went around the room. Everyone greeted her warmly, and she greeted them back. Some reminded her of the homework and some just chatted. Mikan suddenly looked at Natsume's direction, gave him a big smiled, waved then she returned talking to her friends.

Natsume looked from his left to right. No one seemed to be paying attention, so it means that Mikan did wave and smiled at him. His face felt hot as he blushed. He buried his face on his palms and tried to calm himself. "It's just a smile," He muttered to himself.

"Yo," He heard a familiar voice beside him. He looked up. Ruka stood beside him.

"Uh, hey," Natsume raised a brow.

"I saw that," Ruka smirked.

"Saw what?" Natsume looked indifferent.

Ruka chuckled. "I won't lose to you. I always welcome a worthy rival." And then he left Natsume.

"Settle down class," Narumi entered the room. "Today, we shall be discussing about the cultural festival, yey!" He grinned as everyone groaned. Every year Narumi would come up with different weird ways to spice things up a bit—make that a lot. Let's just say he had a unique sense of thinking. Last year's cultural festival was a café with an unusual concept. The kings and their concubines. Seriously, who would want to be a concubine? It could be titled as 'The kings and queens', but no; for Narumi the words King with concubines were from the beautiful history of mankind.

No one could actually protest since Narumi was so persistent and annoying. He even went to the extent of blackmailing them that he would make them write a thesis about love with five hundred pages. "This year, could anyone suggest a good concept?" Narumi asked in a sing song voice.

"Baka Narumi-sensei," Mikan complained. "You would always reject us, and then give us a weird proposal," She crossed her arms and everyone nodded.

"Well," Narumi chuckled deviously, "that seems to be happening every year. Your ideas usually… well… they suck." He said flatly but then he raised his index finger. "But you'll like this one for sure. Teehee." He paused for a moment for impact, "tadaa!"

When he lifted the banner the boys laughed and hooted. Majority of the girls blushed and complained. Mikan couldn't help but giggled. "You are so weird sensei."

"But tell me the truth, you guys actually like this." He waited for a response. Some were good and some were bad.

"We are not prostitutes you know," Hotaru protested.

"It's a dating café, it's just for fun." Narumi justified. "It's not like you're getting married. Oh, I see you sensitive lot must be all virg—"

"Narumi–sensei!" Mikan glared. "You must respect the fact that your students are still children and that dating doesn't have anything to do with motivating the class."

"Ara, ara… Mikan-chan," Narumi tusked. "The fact that you guys are growing to be passionate adults, you guys should be aware of dating or of the opposite gender, if you know what I mean. It's like sociology." Narumi winked.

Mikan shivered. "So that's the reason eh? Like sociology," Narumi nodded in agreement.

"Well, we won't sell much considering they're our classmates." Hotaru commented heartlessly.

"What are you implying Imai-san?!" Mochiage growled.

Hotaru faced Mochiage. "I'm implying some lack the words face value," but then she looked around. "Perhaps we could over sell some faces." She looked Yuu, Ruka, and some others right in the eyes one by one.

"It's not like you'll sell either," Mochiage snapped.

Hotaru glared at him.

"You're wrong Mochiage-kun." Narumi chirped. "Hotaru-chan has a lot of benefactors. Actually, she was proposed to a lot."

Natsume quietly looked at the commotion that was happening. His pulse started to race again. The thought that Mikan would have to date anyone made him annoyed, maybe more than irritated. Mikan was popular and for sure a lot of guys would come and request for her. He didn't realize what he had done, but when he realized it, it was already too late. The banner that Narumi was holding burned to ashes. It almost burned Narumi's hand.

"Who did that?" Narumi pouted.

"Obviously, it's the one with the fire Alice!" Someone shouted. Everyone turned to Natsume. He didn't look embarrassed. In fact he was glaring at Narumi. Everyone felt the chills after looking at Natsume, even Narumi. The raven haired boy's ember eyes were so intimidating that the teacher gulped.

"A—alright, Natsume-kun doesn't seem to like the idea." Narumi cleared his throat. "Any suggestions?" He looked around. Everyone was quiet, who knew Natsume would bother joining the discussion despite the fact that he didn't want to participate?

…

"That was so cool of you," Ruka laughed as he sat beside Natsume. Homeroom just ended, and they decided to have a horror room. "I didn't think Naru would back off."

"It was nothing," Natsume shrugged. "It's not like someone would be asking for me anyway,"

"I would," Mikan sat in front of Natsume. There goes his heart again. "Because you're my hero," She laughed as she remembered what happened of the rooftop.

"I want to be your hero," Ruka argued.

"Such flirt," Hotaru sat beside Mikan.

"Shut up, Imai," Ruka flicked her forehead lightly.

"Don't touch me," Hotaru squirted her anti-germs spray on Ruka.

"Now, I'm wet," Ruka wiped his face.

"You're not that wet, stop overreacting," Hotaru rolled her eyes.

"Aww, they looked like a couple. Quick, argue with me too—umm—uhh…" Mikan looked at Natsume but then closed her eyes. She tried to remember what his name was. She couldn't recall if he introduced himself.

"Natsume Hyuuga," Hotaru sighed.

Natsume felt disappointed, but he still looked indifferent. He always does.

"Right, Natsume," Mikan laughed casually to mask her embarrassment.

"Without the –pyon? How could you?" Ruka tried to look hurt. "When we first met, you called me Ruka-kun even after a year."

"Don't be such a wuss," It was Hotaru's turn to flick Ruka's forehead and it started another argument. Mikan giggled and Natsume just looked at them.

"Aren't they cute?" Mikan whispered suddenly on Natsume's ear. His face flushed, again. There seemed to be a non-stop end to all of his blushing whenever Mikan was around. He felt frustrated, but his face didn't show it. Natsume shrugged as an answer to her question.

Natsume felt light. For the first time, people went to his seat. He related it to the manga that he had read. It's always the heroine's or the hero's doings why the anti-social character gets to have friends, or people near him. Right now, that's what's happening.

"You're pretty silent." Mikan rested her chin on her palm.

"So?" Natsume raised a brow.

"Nothing," She smiled to herself.

'What's wrong with this woman?' Natsume thought to himself. He couldn't believe that he felt differently for this unusual girl. His heart calmed down and everything went back to normal or so he thought.

"Let's watch the fireworks at the end of the festival together…" She looked up at him. At first Natsume was dumbfounded, and he could hear his heart on his ears.

"Why not go with me?" Ruka stopped arguing with Hotaru then looked at Mikan.

"It's easy; we always go every fireworks festival. I wanna go with someone else." Mikan said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"You just got d-u-m-p-e-d," Hotaru winked at Ruka with a coy smile. She took a picture of Ruka's disappointed face with a hint of shock. "This'll earn me a fortune," She smirked.

Ruka blushed. "Shut up," He tried to grab the picture, but Hotaru was surprisingly fast. And there they go again, all over the place. Ruka chased Hotaru everywhere just to get the picture, but his efforts were futile.

"So? What do you say?" Mikan looked at Natsume again as she played with the book on Natsume's desk.

Natsume shrugged. "It's fine,"

"Fine okay or fine not okay?" Mikan raised a brow.

"Fine okay,"

"That's great!" She gave him one of her sweetest smile. "Alright, I got to hold back those two. They're going to wreck the whole place," Mikan stood up and hurried towards her friends.

"Fireworks festival…" Natsume looked up at the sky.

…