Disclaimer: I do not own either Gakuen Alice or Prince of Tennis. I just love the bishounen there

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Chapter Two: My Savior

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Sakuno sent Ryoma a disappointed look and went after Mikan.

The red-headed Kikumaru Eiji whistled, the sound becoming softer as time passed by. "OChibi, that was . . . unexpected." Kikumaru had broken the silence, and the rest of the regulars became rowdy and began to pester the youngest regular.

"Yes, indeed. That was out of my calculations," Inui agreed and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "That was normal for Hyuuga, but for you, Echizen, it wasn't so much…"

Momoshiro had gotten up from his seat and appeared behind Ryoma; he took Ryoma's cap and ruffled his hair. "Natsume is beginning to rub off on you, huh," he said playfully and chuckled.

Oishi Shuichiro shook his egg-shaped head like the motherly person that he was, his two locks of hair in front oscillating as he continued to move his head. Tezuka Kinimitsu merely looked at Ryoma briefly and blinked, then resumed eating his food. Fuji Shuusuke looked at Ryoma quietly as well, his mysterious blue eyes visible, entertainment flickering in them. Kawamura Takeshi had a surprised expression on his face but stayed quiet.

Kaidoh Kaoru just chuckled inwardly. Brat.

Ryoma escaped from his senpai's wrath of ruffling his hair and snatched his white cap back. He grabbed his tennis equipment and tucked his hands in his pockets and left the table as well. "Girls," he muttered.

xxx

Mikan wiped her eyes with a handkerchief that she had in her pocket. "Those tennis guys are such jerks!"

"Mikan!" she heard someone say. She turned around quickly to see who it was; it was Sakuno, of course. "I'm so sorry," she said, an apologetic look across her face. "I should have never gotten you to come with me to bring that bentou for Ryoma-kun."

"Ah, don't worry about it. I was the one who stuck my own nose into your business. At least now I know that those tennis players are all just a bunch of jerks." Mikan gave Sakuno one of her bright smiles.

"No, you've got it all wrong," Sakuno said defensively and frantically waved her hands in the air. She didn't want Mikan to have a bad impression on the Seigaku tennis team just because of a little misunderstanding. "Every one of them, especially the regulars, are really nice. If anything, I think Natsume is the only cold one out of them. Sure, there are some like Kaidoh-senpai who might seem like they're mean but they're not. Tezuka-senpai has a serious face on all the time but he's not mean at all. Let's see... Well, they're not bad people... As for Ryoma..."

"What about him?" Mikan raised an eyebrow at the girl with low braided pigtails.

"He isn't usually like that. Sure, he can be kind of oblivious to people and how they feel so he might seem insensitive, but that's just because..." Sakura paused, her eyes staring down at the ground. "That's just because he's very passionate about tennis and probably has no room for anything else."

"Oh. Is that so?"

Sakuno nodded her head in response, not wanting to say anything more because she was afraid that her voice would tremble. He doesn't even have room for me, she thought, remembering all her attempts to make him notice her and how their relationship still hasn't improved even though they've known each other for years already. She still kept trying anyway, being hopeful that he would finally acknowledge her.

"Eh. I guess that if he's Sakuno-chan's friend then I'll believe you and forgive him," Mikan said energetically, back to her usual self.

"Thank you," Sakuno said shyly. Ryoma-kun...

"We should head back now. Lunch time is almost over."

"Yeah, we should."

Mikan's stomach let out a loud growl. "Aaaw," she whined. "We didn't even get to eat our own lunch." She heaved a sigh. Then, an idea then came to her; it wasn't anything extraordinary, just a usual thought, but she thought of it as a eureka moment anyway. She grinned widely at Sakuno. "Do you want to eat something with me after school?"

"Sure," Sakuno replied softly. They increased their pace, not wanting to be late for their next class; the teacher was Jinno-sensei and we all know how Jinno-sensei is.

xxx

During the classes that she had for the rest of the day, Mikan stared at the clock, watching the second hand move slowly. Mikan narrowed her eyes at the clock. Come on, come on, she thought, as if that would make time pass by faster.

Five seconds.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

The school bell rung, and the last class of the day was over. The brunette quickly put her things away and rushed beside the door, motioning her friend to hurry up as well. Sakuno ran to Mikan's side with a guilty look on her face.

"Let's go eat some dumplings or something. I'm starving!" Mikan said and patted her stomach.

"Um, Mikan," Sakuno began, "I can't go with you today. I'm really sorry!" She bowed down and apologized. "I forgot that I have tennis practice today and I have to stay kind of late."

"Oh." Mikan frowned, obviously displeased. She was really looking forward to eating together with Sakuno after school, like girl friends do.

"I promise I'll go next time."

"Okay." She began to light up again. "I guess I'll go watch you play tennis for a while. I don't think that I've ever watched you play before," she admitted and scratched the back of her head. "Are you good?"

Her friend shrugged. "I'm not really sure. I guess I've been doing pretty well since I have been playing tennis for a few years already."

"Cool."

"I just need to get something before heading to the locker room near the girls tennis courts, okay?"

"Alright. I'm going to go ahead."

"See you there."

Mikan walked in the opposite direction from Sakuno, skipping every now and then to keep herself from getting bored, her pigtails bouncing along with her. She stopped walking and looked around when about fifteen minutes passed.

"Weird," she said to herself, placing her index finger on her chin. "I'm pretty sure that I should have reached the girls tennis courts by now." Crap, I must have gotten lost again.

Yes, this is to be expected of Sakura Mikan. She's already been at Seigaku for two months and she still didn't know the entire place. It was a pretty big school, but come on, two months. Only she could get lost, the bubbly brunette who came from Gakuen Alice. She sighed and continued walking, hoping to see someone who might know where the girls tennis courts were. She heard voices and hoped they belonged to the girls tennis players and hurried to the directions where the voices came from.

She sighed once again, seeing that the voices belonged to the soccer team, not the girls tennis team. Well, I better ask someone how to get to the girls tennis team. Sakun-chano might be worried.

"Excuse me!" she called from the sidelines. No one payed attention to her and continued what they were doing. "Excuse me!" she yelled, louder this time.

A guy with messy ebony hair and deep indigo eyes looked at the girl who was calling out. He approached her, the tattoo of a star below his left eye standing out to Mikan. "Yo. You need anything from my team?"

"Um, do you know how to get to the girls tennis courts by any chance?"

"Maybe," he teased.

Mikan pouted. "Do you?"

He let out a small chuckle. "Of course I do. I'm a junior here. How could I not know? Are you new here?"

"Kind of," she said. "I've been here for almost two months already but I still don't know how to get around."

"I'm Andou Tsubasa. I'll take you to the girls tennis courts right now. I've got some free time anyway."

"Really?" Her chocolate brown eyes filled with joy. "My name is Sakura Mikan, a freshman."

"A cute name for a cute girl." He jumped over the small fence-like divider that separated everything else from the soccer field.

"Oi! Buchou*! Where do you think you're going?" they heard someone yell.

"Crap," he said and grabbed Mikan's wrist. "Hurry, let's go!" He dragged her along with him, but she didn't mind. He was bringing her to the girls tennis courts partially as an excuse to get away from practice and partially because he wanted to help out an adorable kouhai* who seemed really nice.

Mikan thanked him when they arrived at their designation, and he rushed back to the soccer field. It was about fifteen minutes away by walking. "See you again soon," he said when they parted.

She grabbed the wired fence of the tennis court, surveying the courts for her friend who had the same brown hair and eyes as she did. She spotted her with the same pigtails as she had, except they were braided. Sakuno-chan is really hard working, she thought, watching her practice, beads of sweat falling from her forehead. She could hear Sakuno's cries of "Ha!" when she hit the green tennis ball.

Mikan waited there for half an hour, just watching. She knew that Sakuno had seen her watching already and decided it was time to leave.

She walked past the school gates and headed straight to the nearby city, to the area where there were tons of restaurants and food shops side by side. After a while of being indecisive about what she should buy, she finally settled for some dumplings. She ate them slowly, although she normally would have gulped them all down within a few seconds because she felt lonely eating by herself. She didn't want to go home just yet, where her mother was. Her mother who showed no affection toward her or whatsoever.

Azumi Yuka was her mother's name. She used to be sweet and caring, even when her husband died of a tragic, painful death. A few years ago, her own father died as well. She couldn't take it anymore and broke down. She lost her will to be loving to Mikan and just drowned herself with work to forget the pain and to avoid depression, but became cranky and cold toward Mikan most of the time since she was too tired and stressed out for working too much. Sometimes she even took out her anger and stress on Mikan, saying how it was all her fault that both her husband and her father died when her daughter really had absolutely nothing to do with it.

She ordered more dumplings, eating them slowly as ever.

When she finished, she left the shop reluctantly, smiling at the shop owner when he said, "Thank you! Come again, ne?"

She began to walk home which wasn't that far away; it was around twenty-five minutes away from the city by foot and about fifteen minutes away from school. She shivered, the night wind making it colder than it already was, implying the nearing winter season. She was almost home and began to walk faster: she was in the area that she hated passing through the most, where there were only a few street lights and where it seemed like everyone was always hidden in their homes.

It was very dark and quiet.

She kept glancing left and right, getting a bit paranoid.

She passed by yet another alley. And another. And another.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her and dragged her into one of the many alleys. What's happening? Panic. She started to panic. She tried to scream but her mouth was quickly covered by someone's hand.

"We don't need anyone coming to save you and calling the police, now do we?" a masculine voice whispered into her ear. What he said was barely intelligible: his words were slurred and his breath reeked of alcohol.

The girl heard another guy chuckle near the one who was holding her.

No! No, no, no! Mikan kicked and moved around, trying to escape, but her effort was futile; he was too strong. Tears fell from her eyes. I can't give up. She bit the person's hand and began to run, yelling "Help!" as loud as she possibly could.

"You," the other man came after her and she was caught within a few seconds. He threw her onto the ground, still covering her mouth.

"You're a feisty one, aren't you?" He began to tower her, grabbing her chin and examining her face, then her petite body. "You're not exactly pretty, and you probably have yet to grow, but you'll do."

Somebody, help me... More tears poured out of her chestnut brown orbs. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see what would happen next and hoped that this was all just a horrible dream.

"Ow! Who did that?" she heard the guy say angrily. She opened her eyes to see what happened. The man who had been towering her was now standing up, his back facing her.

Another rock flew toward him and hit his face, making him let out another "Ow!" The other guy with him was hit as well, making him let go of Mikan.

"Don't you two know better than this?" A smile could be heard in his voice. Mikan looked to see who it was, seeing the silhouette of a boy with a cap and a tennis racket.

No way, she thought, staring at the figure wide-eyed.

"The cops will be here any second, so I suggest that you two run away," he continued, tossing the stone in his palm up and down. "Or you could stay and wait for them here while I hit you with more rocks."

"We won't forget this," one barked and they both ran out the other end of the alley, leaving Mikan there with her savior. She stayed sitting on the ground, grateful that they weren't able to do anything to her. Tears were still brimming in her eyes, threatening to spill once again, but out of joy and gratitude this time.

He approached her, dropping his tennis racket on the ground. "You alright?" he asked and knelt down in front of her.

She was shocked once again, seeing who the person who saved her was. "E-Echizen R-Ryoma?"

*Buchou - Captain
*kouhai - underclassman

Author's Note: There's chapter two. It wasn't much and it wasn't that long either but I hope you liked it anyway. :D I'm thinking of making this a MikanRyoma fanfic but I'm not too sure yet... I like both Ryoma and Natsume. Ah, decisions, decisions... Thank you for reading :)

Review please.

Flames are highly accepted.

Ja,

Aimee.