Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice.

Warning: OOC (Out of Character) & AU (Alternate Universe): no complaints on how Natsume isn't like this or how Mikan or whoever isn't like this or that because I already said that this story is OOC: because it's just fan fiction anyway.

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Chapter One: Ravinia

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"Don't let go of my hand," Natsume instructed. Mikan nodded and held onto his hand tighter. She was wearing a brown cloak that covered her from her shoulders down to her feet. She was wearing the hood of the cloak to hide her face as well. "We're almost there, to Ravinia."

Soon they stepped out of the dark forest and arrived outside. It was day break and the birds were chirping loudly. The entire town could be seen perfectly from where they were currently standing. The castle near the town amazed Mikan with its great size and pleasant appearance. Mikan pulled her hood off and inhaled the fresh scent of the morning. She smiled, delighted at how nature was at peace here.

Natsume's eyebrows furrowed. He immediately walked to Mikan's side and yanked the hood of her cloak back onto her head. "I told you not to take it off unless I said so." Natsume scowled. He thought that you can never be too careful. Word would soon be out that the nymph of the great cherry blossom tree and Hell's Prince had eloped and people would try to find them for rewards or who knows what the gods offered. Not many knew how Natsume looked like, but most people knew about Mikan. She would also be the easier target, so he had to take great care of her.

"Sorry," Mikan muttered sheepishly.

"Idiot. Just don't do it again, okay?" He planted a light kiss on her forehead.

"Okay." She smiled and brightened up a bit.

"We'll rest at the nearby town. I have someone that I need to see there as well."

The town was noisy. Customers were trying to bargain for food and whatnot. Mikan looked around at the open stores and the windows of other stores that showed things like clothes with a style that she's never seen before. A pair of earrings caught her eye. The earrings were small, gold hoop earrings with a red stone in the middle. She wanted them; the dazzling red color reminded her of Natsume's eyes.

Natsume stopped walking to see what the brunette was staring at. "Did you see something you wanted, Mikan?"

"Huh? Oh, no. It's nothing, really," she said and faced him again. "I just found some of these things interesting since I haven't seen them before," she said, partially lying.

He raised an eyebrow at her and continued walking past the crowd of people, dragging Mikan by her hand.

In a place where there were much fewer people, Natsume opened the door to a somewhat large inn and entered after letting Mikan in. He whispered something to the inn keeper and she immediately led Natsume to a room and handed him a key. The inn keeper told Natsume something before she left, but it was too low for Mikan to hear.

The raven-haired prince inserted the key in the lock and went inside the room with Mikan. It didn't seem like anything special; just a queen-sized bed and a few furniture here and there.

"Can I take off my hood now?" the brunette asked.

Natsume nodded. "Just keep the curtains down if you're not going to wear it and put it back on if you decide to put up the curtains or open the windows or something." He turned towards the door. "Stay in here until I come back, okay?" Natsume ordered in a monotonous tone.

Mikan tilted her head to the side. "Why?" She might be a bit older than Natsume, but she didn't know much about the rest of the world. For her entire life she stayed at her cherry blossom tree and the river near it. She only knew so much about the rest of the world based on what the earth told her—and from what she's heard so far, it wasn't so bad. Mikan didn't know about the cruelty and the darkness of people and other creatures. The only bad things that she's heard about from the earth was about the gate and a few monsters killing people and animals, and those people and animals' bodies became one with the earth again.

"Just do it," he said coldly. He didn't have the time to explain to her. They needed to get things done as soon as possible and continue on their way to the Land of Alices. They still had a long way to go. He also didn't want to explain to her how evil people and certain creatures were, knowing that she wasn't aware of much.

Mikan huffed. "Fine."

"I'll see you later," he said a bit more nicely. He kissed her lips softly and left.

He went back to the inn keeper. Her name was Umenomiya Anna. "He's waiting for you in room 133," she told him. Natsume nodded and thanked her then proceeded to the designated room. He knocked on the wooden door thrice and entered.

Natsume shut the door closed and put up a wall of fire before him just as her entered, hearing the eerie cries of burning demons. When their cries finally ceased, he let the wall of fire disappear. Natsume grinned at the small person who was sitting down comfortably. "Yo."

The person had grey hair and dark, onyx-colored eyes. He jumped off of his chair, standing approximately four feet tall. "As expected of Natsume-sama," he said, grinning back at Natsume. "No one can burn my demons except for you and that wretched fire of yours. I expected nothing less from the soon-to-be king of the world below." He jumped off of his chair and approached Natsume, then kneeled before him. "It's an honor to be summoned by you yet again."

"It's good to see you again too, You-chan," Natsume replied.

The small person before before him was Hijiri Youichi, a sorcerer. He was mainly a demon summoner but was still known as one of the best mages or sorcerers known. He was older than he seemed. He only had the form of a child because a rival sorcerer cast a spell on him, making him stuck in his child form forever or until the one who put the spell on him decided to remove the spell. He's searching for that person so that he can regain his original body, but he wasn't in a rush. It's not like he was going to die any time soon anyway.

"You probably already know about my situation," the fire caster said and took a seat.

"Ah." Youichi nodded and took a seat across from Natsume. "I've heard, but not many know about it yet."

Natsume looked at Youichi with an expression that Youichi didn't understand. He might be smart and a great wizard and all that, but he never was able to understand the mysterious prince who was sitting across from him. "Where's the girl?" he asked, wanting to see the so-called nymph in person. He wondered if she was as beautiful and as kind as he's heard.

"Upstairs. I put her in a room charmed with protection."

"Ah," he said again, forming his calm and collective face.

"I need your help, You-chan," said Natsume. He knew that Youichi didn't like being called 'You-chan,' but he was already used to it. Natsume couldn't help but call the little guy 'You-chan' because of his appearance. No matter how hard he tried, Youichi still seemed like an adorable little kid with a poker face. Sometimes he felt like Youichi was his younger brother. Youichi was one of the precious figures in his life. He also insisted that Youichi call him 'Natsume nii-chan or nii-san,' just for the hell of it.

"It's about Mikan," he started. "I need you to make an Alice Stone for me. For her protection. There might be times when I'm unable to protect her for myself, and when those times come, I want her to be protected from harm. She just looks so fragile that I can't help but worry about her." A troubled expression came upon his face. "She can be so dense and so stupid at times too that I feel like I always have to watch over her, like a little kid or something."

"Okay," the child-like person said. "I'll give you the best Alice Stone I've created so far, since it is, after all, for Natsume-sama—I mean, Natsume nii-san's most important person." He jumped off of his chair again and headed toward the door. "Let's go. It's at my house. If I made one right now then it probably wouldn't be of the best quality and we can't settle for that now, can we?"

The expression in Natsume's eyes brightened up a bit. He followed Youichi. He had to get that Alice Stone right away and give it to his beloved Mikan. He was going to give her three Alice Stones; three Alice Stones that he thought were the most powerful and useful for Mikan. Of course, he trusted Youichi and his power, so he only needed two more to get.

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Mikan stared at the thing called a 'clock' that was on the wall. It was invented by some genius named Imai Hotaru and told the time without the use of the sun. It was created about a few years ago, and people became very fond of it.

She sighed and sat up on the bed. It's been three hours since he left already, she thought. She placed the hood of her brown cloak back on. Natsume won't mind if I leave for just a little while, she thought and snickered. She tried to open the door but it was shut tight. "That Natsume," she breathed out. "Why did he lock me in this place?"

She walked to the window and looked down. "Perfect," she said to herself. She wasn't too high up and there was a narrow space that she could land on. It was an alley sort of place, so no one would see her escape. I'll just come back in a few minutes, she told herself and climbed onto the window sill, getting ready to jump down. She unconsciously used her Nullification Alice, (which no one knew she possessed, not even Mikan herself knew), canceling out the protection charm that was enchanted on the room and jumped closed her eyes, getting ready for the impact of her feet with the ground.

She landed on her feet but soon fell over and sat on the not-so-soft ground. "Itai," she said and rubbed her arse. She smiled, realizing that her escape was a success. She walked out of the alley-like place and began exploring the new town on her own.

Mikan wandered off, getting farther and farther away from the inn. She didn't even notice since she was enticed by the bizarre things around her. She got carried away by the massive crowd and was pushed here and there.

Maybe it's time I headed back, she decided soon enough and turned around to walk back to the inn. It simply wouldn't do if Natsume got back to the inn and she was gone. She frowned, already being able to picture how Natsume would look like and what he would do once he found out that the room that he left her in was empty. To describe the situation in one word, it would be: CHAOTIC.

Much to her dismay, the inn was nowhere in sight when she looked back. The brunette began to panic. She didn't notice that she already wandered so far away from the inn. She calmed down and thought of an idea to get back to the inn. I know! I'll ask people around here where it is. . . It then dawned her that she didn't even know the name of that inn, but she decided to ask people around her anyway.

"Excuse me," she said to a couple of people, but was just ignored and shoved around by most. "Do you know where the inn is?" she asked a few people, but the way she described it was just too vague, and there were a lot of inns in Ravinia that fit her description. Disappointed, she then decided to look for it herself.

But as we all know, Mikan has a very poor sense of direction.

She panted, tired of walking around everywhere and being pushed by people who thought she was in their way. She frowned a bit.

She leaned against a tree and sat down on the ground. "How did I even get here?" she asked no one in particular. She smiled once she calmed down. She was worried about what Natsume would do, albeit she couldn't help but smile at the scenery before her. She knew that she was just further away from the inn now because the huge castle that she saw earlier was now so close. She thought that it looked simply beautiful.

She stood up and ran in a field of wild flowers. The wind blew off her hood briefly, but she immediately put it back on. Her eyes darted left and right, looking if anyone was nearby and if they saw her face. She let out a sigh of relief, realizing that no one was anywhere in sight.

What she didn't know was that someone did see her face and was awestruck by her beauty. He was standing behind a tree not so far away and was hiding from certain people; he was wearing a cloak just like her, except his was more of a beige color. His dark purple eyes lingered on her figure. He wondered why she wore a cloak and hid her beauty.

Mikan sighed and walked away from the field of flowers. I'd better try to get back to the inn now. She walked to the nearest store she found and went in. The cloaked person followed her, curious as to where she was going. The bell on top of the door jingled when she opened it and entered the store.

"Excuse me," she said to the shop owner.

The bell jingled again. Someone else entered.

"Do you know where the big inn with the red roof is?" she asked and began describing the inn where she was supposed to be right now.

The shop owner snorted and answer her rudely: "How the hell would I know?" He grabbed Mikan's wrist and pulled her close to him. She let out a high shriek. "Why are you wearing that cloak anyway, huh, girlie?"

"P-Please let go," Mikan said in a shaky voice. Someone help me, she thought. But the only other person there aside from her and the shop owner was the cloaked guy who entered right after her. His back was turned to her. Natsume said not to let anyone see my face or else we'll be in real trouble. . . Tears started to form in her eyes. The man reached out his hand to remove her hood and see what a freakshow she was.

He stopped immediately, feeling a cold, hard blade against his throat. The person wearing the beige cloak had his hood off, revealing a good-looking guy with ebony hair and dark purple eyes. Below his left eye was a star-shaped mark. "What has Ravinia become?" he asked rhetorically and shook his head in dismay. "Release the lady," he commanded, and the shop keeper did as he was told.

"I-I'm sorry, Andou-sama!" He went down on his knees and begged for forgiveness.

Mikan hid behind him, relieved that the man didn't get to see her face. She examined her rescuer and looked at him from head to toe. Andou-sama..?

"I'll go lightly on you for your disrepect. Leave this town as soon as possible and never speak to anyone about this matter."

"H-Hai!" the shop owner answered.

"If you do," the man with the sword gestured that the shop owner will be killed.

Who exactly is this man? Mikan wondered. She didn't know whether to think of him as good or bad. He did save her, but then again, he did threaten to kill the man for doing something not so critical to her. Well, it was critical to Mikan, but the Andou guy didn't know that. . .Right?

The one called Andou used his Shadow Manipulation Alice and scribbled something on his shadow, letting the shop owner stay kneeling on the ground for two hours. He exited the shop and Mikan tagged along.

"You're lost, am I right?" he smiled at her.

"Yeah..." Mikan looked down at the ground and worried about Natsume again.

"Come with me," he said and pulled her by her wrist. He didn't really give her a chance to decline, but he seemed like a good person so Mikan followed him obediently.

They arrived at the front gate of the enormous, white castle. "Open the gate!" the ebony-haired man shouted. A guard from a watch tower looked at him and his eyes widened. He answered, "Yes, sir! Immediately!" And the gate was opened.

Sir..? Mikan looked at her savior's face again.

Another guard approached him and said, "You should stop sneaking out of the castle as you please, King Tsubasa."

"Yeah, yeah," Tsubasa muttered and added, "And I told you not to call me 'King!' Tsubasa-sama or just plain Tsubasa is fine."

Mikan, who was now standing beside him gaped at him with wide eyes. "Ehh?! You're the King of Ravinia?!"

Author's Note: Chapter two is finally done. How was it? I didn't proofread it because I'm tired and am going to sleep now. I'll proofread it tomorrow, when I get home from school or something. Hope you enjoyed it! Like I'm trying to do with my other fics, I'll try to update this on a weekly basis. But I probably won't update next week because I'm going my senior trip! Yay for me. :)

Review please.

Ja,

-Aimee