a/n: It's that time of year…school is officially starting for many of the wonderful people who visit this site. To commemorate this (horrible) moment, I hope to cheer you all up with an adorable school-themed oneshot. It's filled with lots of cute little children kindergarten fluff and innocence and happiness, which I hope will make you all feel better about the impending doom that is the new school year. Happy reading and please review!

Something I just realized about this title, "When Ari Met Ally" sounds like the that movie title "When Harry Met Sally", which literally made me laugh forever. Hope you all find it funny too.

Disclaimer: I don't own Covert Affairs. Bummer.

When Ari Met Ally

"Give him back!" Ally cried, her little five year old arms reaching up to try and snatch the teddy bear being held above her head.

"Come on, jump for it!" the second grade bully said, laughing as he dangled the bear just out of poor Ally's reach.

"Please, Mitch," Ally sniffled, "Teddy didn't do anything to you."

"Doesn't mean I'm not going to do anything to 'Teddy'," Mitch said, saying the bear's name with a mocking drawl. He then grabbed one of the bear's arms in each hand, "How hard do you think I'll have to pull to tear him half?"

"No!" Ally shouted, lunging for the bear, "Let him go!"

Mitch simply laughed, using his foot to shove the little girl away from him. Ally landed with a thump in the dirt. Tears splashed down her front as she heard the sounds of stitches breaking. Mitch laughed louder as one of the bears arms came free, stuffing leaking from its ripped end.

"Oops," Mitch said, his voice sarcastic, "Looks like I broke it." A thoughtful look then came over the boy's face as he tossed the arm to the ground. It became a cruel grin, "I wonder- does its head come off too?"

"No!" Ally wailed, burying her face in her hands. More ripping sounds reached Ally, who cried louder.

"What is going on over here?" a stern voice asked, causing both children to look up. They found a teacher standing over them, her hands planted firmly on her hips.

"We're just playing," Mitch said, attempting a winning grin. Judging by the look the teacher was giving the boy, she wasn't buying it. She snatched the bear from his hands and handed it back to Ally and then grabbed Mitch's wrist and marched him away, telling him off loudly as she did.

Rubbing the back of her hand over her eyes, Ally looked down at her tattered bear. On its side, where there had once been an arm, nothing but a ragged edged hole remained, from which hung a small cloud of cotton. The poor creature's head hung from its neck by a small bit of still connected fabric, more stuffing poking out of the neck and severed head. Sniffling, Ally gathered up the remains of her stuffed friend just as her own teacher called for her students to return to class.

"Oh dear," Ally's teacher said when she noticed the destroyed toy that Ally was carrying back into class, "What happened to your bear?" she asked.

"M-Mitch," Ally snuffled, rubbing tears from her bright green eyes. The teacher nodded, immediately knowing what the young girl meant. It was almost daily that her kids came to her complaining about something or other that boy had done to them.

"There there," the teacher comforted, patting Ally on the shoulder as she gently pulled the bear from her little fingers, "When your father comes to get you we'll let him know what happened. I'm sure he'll get you a new bear."

Ally just sniffled sadly as the teacher walked away, taking the teddy bear's remains and depositing them in the waste basket by her desk. She then reached under her desk, pulling out a large box filled with numerous smaller containers.

"Alright class," she called, getting her students' attentions, "Time for arts and crafts! Today we are making cards for people who we think are feeling sad and need cheering up! So come and get your supplies and some paper, and then take them to your desk and you may begin."

Ally trudged up to the teacher, not at all in the mood for making something to make people feel better. She didn't look up at the teacher as she gathered her supplies, or at the boy who bumped into her as he grabbed some paper.

"Sorry," Ari said, looking over at the curly-brown haired girl he'd bumped in to. She didn't say anything back, just quickly grabbing some colored paper before hurrying back to her seat. Ari frowned. He'd seen what happened today during recess, when her bear had been pulled apart by the bully from the second grade. Although their hatred of Mitch was something all kindergartners generally rallied together on, no one had gone to Ally's aid that day. This was mainly due to that fact that Ally didn't really have any friends in the kindergarten class.

"That's not fair," Ari whispered to himself as he watched Ally find a table near the corner by herself to sit at, "Someone should make her a feel better card."

The light bulb that came on over Ari's head at that moment made him grin widely and he hurried away from the crowd of students getting craft supplies and over to the waste basket holding Ally's damaged teddy bear. Making sure no one was looking; Ari reached a hand in and nabbed a fist full of the bear's stuffing before quickly scurrying away.

Over at Ally's lonely table, the brown haired girl was just putting the finishing touches on her simple card—a folded piece of light blue paper with a teddy bear scrawled on the front. The inside was blank. Ally sniffled again as she stared down at the card, not sure what to say to her gone forever bear.

"Hi!" a voice suddenly said, startling Ally. She looked up, quickly scrubbing at her watery emerald green eyes. Standing beside her table was a boy with short jet black hair and tanned skin, a purple card clutched in his fingers.

"Umm, hi," Ally responded shyly. She wasn't used to the other kids coming over and talking to her. And then she realized she had seen him before, "Wait, do I know you?"

The boy nodded happily, "Yep. Our parents both work for the agency so I see you around a lot," he grinned widely, "I'm Ari Wilcox."

"Oh, I remember now," Ally blinked a couple of times, "Um, hi. I'm Ally Anderson."

"I know, silly," Ari laughed, "I said I already know who you are."

Ally nodded, "Yeah."

"Anyway, I saw what the older kid did to your bear today," Ari looked down, fighting the light pink blush that was creeping onto his cheeks, "That was really mean of him. So…I made you a card so you can feel better!"

"Uh," Ally muttered, taking the gift that was suddenly thrust at her. She stared at Ari a moment longer, and then looked down at the card in her hands. It was a square of purple paper, cut with the skill of five year old fingers, and decorated with crayon scribbled words—'I'm sorry about your bear but now you can still have him with you!'. Under these words, held on with copious amounts of Elmer's liquid glue, was a big sloppy heart made of some of the white stuffing from her ruined bear.

Ally stared down at the card, emerald eyes wide. This was the nicest thing anyone had ever given her.

"Umm, well, I'mma go now," Ari grinned, motioning to the table where his friends where calling his name, "I guess I'll see you around the agency sometime, Ally."

"Wait!" Ally called, setting down her new card and grabbing the other one she had been working on. She quickly wrote 'thank you, Ari' inside it, with a big red heart, and handed it over to the dark-haired boy.

Ari looked at the card he held in his tiny hands and grinned, "Thanks, Ally!" he exclaimed, and then scurried off to rejoin his friends.

Ally smiled happily, and then turned back to her own card. She poked the stuffing heart, and grinned wider.

Now she could keep more than her bear close. And could keep her first friend close too.