A/N: Whoo, first fanfiction? Hurrah, hurrah. PLEASE READ THE INFO ON SUZU/THESE FANFICS ON MY PROFILE. Ehm... unbetaed, so there's going to be big glaring mistakes in my crappy mother language. Nothing much else to say, I'm just pointing out again that there are no pairings. Er... hope you enjoy?

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Chapter One: Off to the City

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It was already dark when the bus came to its 11th screeching stop at next to a road that seperated the city from a rural looking town.

Suzu opened his eyes, shaken from sleep. He looked out the window apathetically, rubbing the blurriness from his vision. Dirt roads, very little light other than the moon, and everywhere was surrounded by forest. It would be a nice place to stop, but he didn't move from his seat.

After hours of running as far away as he could from his brother's loft, his legs were worn out, and he didn't have enough energy to walk however many miles down the path to reach the nearest town. Besides, it was almost pitch black darkness outside, he wouldn't be able to keep on the path.

He rubbed his eyes again, just for a moment, he thought he saw a young girl running furiously down the path towards the bus. My imagination...? Turned from the window, Suzu rested his head on the bag on his lap. It was tiring, but he was getting as far away as possible... as far away... dozing off, he didn'=t hear the low hydraulic sound of the bus door opening gently, or the light footsteps.

"Hiya there!" a happy voice greeted from the seat across from him.

Suzu turned his head to the side, too sleepy to actually raise his head again. It was the girl from the path. Close up, she looked about his age, although seeming a bit younger with her chestnut brown hair tied up in neat pigtails.

A hesitant 'ah' was the only reply he was able to return to her.

"So, what're you doing on the bus so late?" she asked, staring at him with wide, curious eyes.

"I could ask you the same..."

"Oh! Well, I'm going to Alice Academy to go visit my friend! She hasn't been writing at all and I haven't seen her in months and months and months and I've been so lonely and she must be lonely too because they're keeping her in that horrible jail-like place where they train their students like circus animals and...!"

Her ranting continued for another ten minutes, in which her face became more and more comical while tears started forming in her eyes, by the time she finished her 'heart-wrenching' story, the bus was already on the route back to Tokyo.

"I see..." he really had nothing else to say, empathy and sympathy were never his strong points.

"So, anyways, why are you on the bus?" she asked again, bouncing back immediately to her chipper self.

'She's sort of scary...'

"I'm running away."

The girl's smile faded slowly, "Running away? Why would you do that?! You're going to make people worry for you, you know! Geez, how could you be so selfish? Besides, you're just a kid, it's dangerous for you to be alone!"

Another rant, more amusing expressions, however, this time, he got just a little bit annoyed, although he mentally commended her for being tactful and not using the word 'parents'.

"Maa... I think it's okay. No one is expecting me back, I have some money, and my luck is really good. Besides, aren't you doing the same thing?"

She turned white, looking stricken before bouncing back and retaliating, "No! I left a letter for grandpa, and I'm only going to be away for a little while, until I meet my friend, then I'm going back home!"

Suzu stared at her with the same bored gaze, "Mm... good luck." He buried his face in the bag again.

"Gyeh! So rude! Hmph!"

The next few hours remained relatively quiet, with not many people getting on and off the bus. Suzu slept, and so did the girl.

The bus came to its final stop. It was now half past two in the morning.

"Hey, you kids back there! You need to get out! I need to go home too!"

Suzu woke up again, the girl shaking his shoulder.

"You should wake up now, the bus line is closing for tonight," she said in a soft voice.

Suzu stood up slowly, yawning, and stretching his numb limbs.

"Thanks."

"No problem!"

He stepped out of the bus first, the girl stayed behind to collect some bags, and for some reason, he waited. Just as the girl started walking towards the door, he was about to start off, but again, his legs stopped.

"Thank you Mr. Bus Driver! I'm sorry that you had to go through all the trouble!" the girl said, smiling.

"A-ah, no problem kid... er... be careful, being night and all..." and with that, the bus was driving off again, although the destination sign was off.

"You waited! Here I thought that you would run off without a goodbye!"

"I was just about to..."

He scowled inwardly, maybe he really should start drinking two glasses of milk a day, even this girl was taller than he was, but that was beside the case.

The girl smiled, "My name's Mikan. Sakura Mikan, it was nice to meet you!"

Suzu blinked, "You too."

She seemed to hesitate a bit before turning around, See you around! and with that, she walked away confidently, with cheers of 'I'm coming for you Hotaru!' and 'No distance can keep us away from each other!'

Suzu stood in the same place, looking at the ground before his feet. There should have been a reason that he stopped here. After 12 stops, he wouldn't just get off on the last one without reason, there was always a reason, there had to be one.

He glanced contemplatively towards the direction the pigtailed girl shuffled off. Sure enough, she was walking back as quicker than she went.

She flittered around sheepishly, "Heh... heh... um.... if you have no where else to go, we should walk together!"

"Huh?"

"I mean, you ran away from home right? Eh... um... did... did you have anywhere to go? No? Well... Perfect! Then we could go together right? Ah, this is the best, then I can make sure that you don t get lost and..."

"Sakura-san, you re afraid of the dark aren't you?"

"Geh--"

There is was again, her washed-out shocked pose, "O-o-o-o-of course not! I'm not s-s-s-scared of anything!"

"Hmm...?" Suzu blinked again, "Well whatever, I'll go with you if you want."

"Wai!" Mikan grabbed Suzu's hands, swinging around happily, "Then I'll introduce you to Hotaru too! You guys will surely like each other! Ah... Thinking about it... you guys are super similar. With the same biiii-- expression, don't you smile?"

"Ye..."

"Anyways, lets go! I wanna go find her by tomorrow!"

"..."

Suzu sighed, she was too energetic for him to keep up with. They walked in silence for a few minutes.

"Oh by the way, what's your name?" Mikan stopped, looking at him with a smile.

"Suzuran."

She giggled, "Your name's weird."

"Yeah..."

So together they went, and the entire time, Sakura Mikan told stories of her childhood with Hotaru , and the entire time, Suzu listened, and thought.

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It had been twelve hours. They went through miles and miles of the city, riding the subway and train. Both were worn out, having not slept since the leaving the bus. However, no matter how far they traveled, there was still no sign of the academy. It wasn't too surprising, after all, they were only going by the picture of a gorilla billboard sent by her friend on a postcard.

'Hotaru said that this is the view from her room! If we can find this, we'll be able to get to her for sure!'

'But the chances are very low, don't you think?'

'Uuu, stop being so depressing Suzu!'

'Eh-- ah... don t worry, we'll find it for sure, my luck is very good.'

Although that was what he said...

"Sakura-san..." he was graced with a depressed noise, "Sakura-san, I think we should rest now. Your friend isn't going anywhere, right?"

"No! No! No! No! NO! We need to go get her, and rescue her from the evil jail watermelon island school!" a roaring fire seemed to burn around Mikan as she pumped her fist into the air passionately. "But but..." the fire died down, of course that wasn't for long.

"SUZUUUUUUUUUUU, YOU TRAITOR! I... I thought you said you were lucky! Traitor! Betrayal! Evil person!" she cried, shaking him violently back and forth.

"S-sakura-san! Let's rest for now, if you wear yourself out now, you won't be able to catch up with her again, right? Even if you find her."

She sniffled, "Yeah... but..."

"Don't worry, you'll meet her for sure." For good measure, Suzu smiled reassuringly, however awkward and forced it felt.

Just as she was about to tackle him with her sparkling teary joy, she tripped, so instead of an armful of sobbing, watery girl, he got a faceful of paper.

He peeled it off, "It's a 10 dollar bill, see? I'm lucky!"

Mikan twitched, face down on the ground.

Suzu helped her up, "Let's get a crepe or something with this, and we'll start looking for the sign again, okay?"

"Okay..."

"Just sit here and wait, I'll be right back!"

Mikan sat on the bench, looking at her bags sadly.

Suzu glanced back, a bit worried, but jogged over to the crepe stand.

The man greeted him heartily, "Welcome, kid! What can I do for you?"

"May I get two crepes please? One with banana, and one with strawberry."

There was a brief shuffling as the man filled two crepe wraps with the fruits.

"Here you go!"

"Thank you," he handed the person the paper bill.

"Eh? No, kid! You're my 100th customer! These are on the house."

"But..."

"Just enjoy them, alright?" the man laughed, shooing him away.

"Th-thank you..."

Of course, he was always like this, always lucky, it never got old.

He saw Mikan staring at the postcard as he headed back to the bench. She was emanating the same depressing aura as before.

"Here you go, Sakura-san," he held one of the crepes out to her.

"Thanks Suzu-chi," she rubbed dry tears from her eyes.

Suzu twitched, 'Suzu-chi...?'

"Ah... how did you know I like strawberry crepes?"

He shrugged nonchalantly, "I guess that's sort of like luck too."

Mikan laughed. Suzu couldn't help but smile a bit as well.

He looked over to the crepe stand, taking a big bite of his crepe, "You know, I was his 100th customer, I got these for free."

"Eh?!" Mikan nearly dropped her crepe, "Geh... you really are lucky aren't you?"

"Hm..." Suzu didn't look away from the stand. A few seconds later, the stand rolled down the slight hill, and the crepe-man chased after it in panic.

"Ah. Sakura-san, look." He pointed to the place where the crepe stand's sign had just been. Mikan looked up from her crepe.

It was the gorilla billboard.

"AH! Suzuuu! You really are lucky! Lucky like a lucky cat, or a lucky penny, or a lucky clover!" Mikan bubbled with excitement, again nearly dropping her half-eaten strawberry crepe as she hugged him, shaking him just as violently as she hand when she was angry.

"Do you want to start walking?"

"Yes... yes, yes!"

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[so, how was it?]