Disclaimer: I do not-- nor will I ever-- own Gakuen Alice.

Dedicated to: Little-Miss-Giggle: fanfiction . net won't be the same without you!

Enjoy!

When she looks at him… I don't know, I guess it's just different from the way she looks at me. I know he loves her, but I always had my hopes that she would love me. I guess that was all in vain though…

Oh god, I'm pathetic. I never had a chance with her, never. I should've known. How could I ever compare to him? I've always been lower, but when it came to her, I thought maybe, just maybe, I could beat him.

But it was never about winning. No, not against him. I loved her. Loved her… I've given up. How could I not? It's obvious to anyone who's around them that they're in love. They may not have admitted it to themselves, but they will. And I can't be around for that. I can't watch the girl I love with my best friend.

I never thought that I'd lose my best friend over a girl. But she changed all that. And now… I don't think I can be around him anymore. I can't just sit back and watch. No. I've got to move on. Unfortunately, that means leaving behind my best friend. Sure, I'll miss him, but it'll hurt more to stay.

"You're a coward."

"What?" Ruka's head snapped up, confusion clear on his face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're a coward obviously," the girl said, calmly sipping a hot chocolate. He gaped at her. "Look Nogi, you lost her. Okay? You understand that, don't you? She loves him. Maybe she always has. I don't know. But just because she loves Natsume doesn't mean you have to run away. If anything, that just proves how spineless you are."

"I'm not spineless!" he insisted, bracing himself against the plastic table. "You don't know how it feels, Imai! You've never been like this! You're ice! You're the ice queen! You would never know how I feel about Mikan, how much it hurts…"

She slammed down her mug with a downcast face, not seeing his flinch. "I don't know how it feels? Wow Nogi. You really do know nothing. You think I've never been hurt? You think no one has ever broken my heart? You're wrong." She stood up, "And stupid." She walked away, her arms crossed tightly against her chest.

"Imai? Imai!! Wait! Come back!!" But it was as if he had said nothing at all. She completely ignored him. "What a weird girl," he muttered to himself. He sat back down on the bench and looked at the hot chocolate she'd forgotten.

He pulled it in front of himself and gazed down into the sweet-smelling brown liquid. His fingers curled around the middle of the cup, embracing its warmth. And he thought of Hotaru.

She was unlike all the other girls he knew. She was cold and calculating, but had a soft side for her best friend. It was said that Mikan was the only one who could make the ice queen smile, even a little. What kind of person was incapable of smiling if not for one person?

One someone always falls for. Natsume only really smiled for Mikan. And now she loved him. No. Ruka had to admit that it had been a long time coming. He had done his best not to notice but it was too late now. But with Hotaru, Mikan would never love her like that. Not the way that it was like with Natsume. Ruka didn't think anyone could compare to that love. It saddened him to think of, but he knew it to be true.

But what was it that Hotaru had said? 'You think I've never been hurt? You think no one has ever broken my heart? You're wrong… And stupid." What had she meant by that? As far as he could remember, she had never been with someone. So who had hurt her? And why was it so obvious to her that he should know?

Girls. He would never understand them.

He looked down again at the mug before him and sighed. The chocolate had cooled down, and he could feel his cheeks reddening in the cold. It was time for him to go inside. He dumped the drink in the grass and carried the cup inside. He walked to his room and unwound his scarf, peeled off his gloves and jacket, and threw himself on his soft bed.

And now he thought more of Hotaru. He just couldn't grasp what he was apparently supposed to know. Who had hurt her? And why was it so important for him to all of a sudden be so interested in finding out? He hated to admit it, but when there was a mystery in front of him, he had to solve it. And Hotaru Imai was a curious case indeed.

He thought about every time he had ever seen the girl smile. For one, whenever she was with her best friend and Mikan did something stupid. But, somewhere deep in the back of his mind, Ruka knew there was another time when she had smiled. A time when Mikan had been off somewhere with Natsume. It had been just the two of them: Hotaru and Ruka. It was all coming back to him.

They'd been having one of their famous photo shoots in the park. He was being pranced around, surrounded by chirping birds, posing for pictures. When he had finally gotten fed up of it, he'd grabbed her camera in a burst of adrenaline and began snapping photos of the ice queen herself. In every picture of her alone, she was grim-faced and turned away from the camera. At the time, it had been a shock for him that she had not tried to take back the camera or shoot him with her Baka Gun ™. But then, the adrenaline had taken him a step further: he got himself in a few pictures of her.

He slung his arm around her shoulders and stuck his tongue out to the camera. He got down on one knee and dramatically presented her a daisy. He stood next to her and smiled sweetly down at her. In every photo he took of the two of the together, she had a softened look on her lovely face. After they'd been developed (double copies), she'd been seen with a small smile as she flicked through a stack of photos. No one could tell exactly what pictures she was looking at when she smiled, but Ruka had a feeling that it was the ones of the two of them.

Without getting up from the bed, he rummaged in the drawer of his bedside table. As he pulled the envelope out, he raised his head from the bed. When he opened the envelope, several photographs spilled out, covering his pillow. He searched through them for those precious few, the ones where he "let his hair down" and she did too. There they were. He gazed into her eyes in the pictures. He picked up a single one and gasped. How could he not have noticed it? He dropped the photo on the bed and ran out the door.

The photograph of Ruka and Hotaru gazed up from the bed. Ruka was looking off in a direction away from the camera. Hotaru was looking straight at him, a sad look in her eyes.

Ruka sat now on a cold stone bench, wind whipping his blonde hair in every direction. He was panting, tired after having run all over campus looking for her. His chest heaved as he sat hunched over, hands dangling between his legs. The wind slowed and a lock of hair fell across his forehead. He sighed gustily. "Where is she?" he murmured.

A delicate hand pushed the strand of hair of his face. He looked up. There stood the great Hotaru Imai, hands hanging by her side. "I'm here." She stared at him with a stoic face. "Why were you looking for me?"

He hesitated. "I don't know. It's kind of awkward to say…"

"Either you tell me why you ran all over the school looking for me everywhere except my room or I'll hit you with my Baka Gun ™ so hard your grandkids will feel it."

He gulped. "W-well, it's just that you said that someone had hurt you and I got to wondering and I found the photograph and I think I figured it out."

"And what exactly did you figure out, Nogi?" She raised an eyebrow.

"You hated that I loved Mikan. You were jealous and upset but you couldn't say anything. You were afraid that if you did, you'd lose your reputation and no one would respect you anymore. You like me, don't you, Hotaru?"

She stared straight at him. Neither of them said a word.

She turned and walked away.

"Hotaru." She stopped.

"I don't want to be your rebound, Ruka."

"How could you think that?! You'd never be just a rebound! You'd never be a rebound at all!"

"This morning you were in love with my best friend. I find it hard to believe that just a few hours later, you're suddenly madly in love with me." She faced him again. "Will you just leave me alone now?" And she once again walked away.

"No." He strode quickly over to her and grabbed her wrist. "You know what I realized today? I realized that I never really loved Mikan. Sure, I had a crush on her. But for years, I was just clinging to the idea of having a crush because there was something I didn't want to face. And that is that I really, truly love you, Hotaru. It's you I like! You!!" He pulled her close and enveloped her in his arms. He leaned in a quickly covered her lips with his. She gave a little whimper as she twined her arms up around his neck.

A snowflake gracefully made its way down to them. A few more landed on the couple, breaking them apart. "What were we waiting for?"

"I don't know about you," Hotaru said, breathless. "But I was waiting for you to see me."

"I can see you now," he said.

"I'm glad," she whispered, leaning into him again.

THE END

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Gotta love hot chocolate... Makes winter feel so much more cozy, eh? Go out and make yourself a cup right now! If you don't have any mix, go and buy some!!!

Bye~~

Love,

Wishing You Knew