'ello, mates!

I try to stay as true as I can to how the Japanese do things, so a few of you may be confused.

For those of you who know little of Japanese culture:

They arrange their names as surname, given name, making Thomas Bland into Bland Thomas, or Makato Naegi into Naegi Makato.

For respect, they have honorifics, which are sort of like our "Mr," Mrs," and so on. The ones used are: -san: A universal honorific that's used in almost every situation, for general respect. -kun: Used generally for male children and teenagers, or for a boy that a girl has known for a long period of time, or is emotionally attached to(hinthint).

A doujin is a piece of media created by a small group of people, sometimes even just a single person, for little profit. It could be something like this - a fanfiction. It could also be original content, like what you'd see in Fiction Press.

Sorry for the long note, I apologize for keeping you. I hope you enjoy!

Knock, knock.

Naegi looked up from his papers, glancing at the digital clock on his table. It read 11:43pm. That meant he had just spent the last 4 or so hours studying. The most recent hour of that was probably spent scratching his head on the considerably difficult concept he was working on now. And he was still only halfway through the mountain of textbooks laid off to the side. It was most definitely going to be another late night.

He sighed.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Coming." Naegi got up and walked to the door, stretching his arms.

When he opened the door, standing there was the expressionless mercenary, Ikusaba Mukuro. She was wearing light pyjamas which had the pattern of a strange bear demon thing, which Naegi had never seen before. Maybe her twin sister had fashioned it for her. Naegi knew she was really interested in clothing and the like.

Naegi also knew that Ikusaba looked fairly good in them. Considerably good.

"Good evening, Naegi-kun." Ikusaba's greeting pulled Naegi out from his thoughts.

"Ah, good evening, Ikusaba-san."

She held up a couple sheets of paper, which were filled with writing.

"Here are the notes that you asked for."

Oh, that. Naegi had completely forgotten about them.

"Ah, right" Naegi reached out and took the papers. "Thanks, Ikusaba-san. You really helped me out."

Ikusaba nodded, which was the only acknowledgement that she heard anything he said. As usual, she was as blank and expressionless as a stone.

Although, in her mind, she was very pleased to receive praise from Naegi. She had no idea why, though. She thought that it was completely unreasonable to feel pleased for such a petty reason.

But she felt pleased.

"Then, I will go now. " The soldier turned to leave.

Naegi began to shut his door, then remembered something.

"Actually, Ikusaba san," Naegi said hastily, reaching out his free hand and grasping Ikusaba's wrist.

Ikusaba's whole body tensed. Her head turned to look over her shoulder, to stare down Naegi with her vacant eyes. A murderous aura began to emanate from every pore of the lethal, battle trained girl.

"Ack..." Naegi was taken back by the hostile reaction. He withdrew his hand from her considerably cold wrist, thinking he had made a horrible mistake.

Ikusaba slowly turned around so that she was facing Naegi again. She continued to watch him intensely, and not a single twitch of a muscle escaped her eyes.

Naegi tried to apologize. "S-sorry..."

"What did you want?" Naegi couldn't tell if Ikusaba was acting normal, or coldly towards him. Then again, they were close to being the exact same attitude.

"I was going to say," Naegi explained hesitantly, "Is it all right if you help me out with my work? I'm kind of confused with some things."

Ikusaba was silent for a second.

Then, "Yes."

Naegi looked slightly confused. "Yes... to what?"

"Yes," Ikusaba said in her blank voice, "It is all right if I help you out with your work."

Naegi nodded slowly, thinking that Ikusaba had a slightly weird thought process. Though, it was also slightly cute, in a weird way.

"All right," Naegi said, "Come in, then."

Ikusaba stepped into the room and looked around, while Naegi rummaged around for another chair.

Like Naegi, there wasn't anything that stood out in the room. It was an average dorm room in the academy. There wasn't very many personal things added to the room, except for a family photo here and there.

Naegi pulled his head out of his closet. "Hey, Ikusaba-san, I couldn't find another chair. I'm going to go to the storeroom and grab one."

"It is fine, Naegi-kun. I am comfortable with standing." The stoic girl showed no displeasure or irritation.

Naegi was already half-way out the door. "Yeah, but I'm not. I'll be quick."

And so, Ikusaba was left alone within a teenage boy's room.

She was slightly touched that Naegi cared about her. But only slightly. Like how she felt when a member of her squad died giving her covering fire.

Besides, he'd probably do the same thing with anybody, no matter who it was that was missing a seat.

For a few seconds, Ikusaba just stood in the middle of Naegi's room. It was then that she realized she was in her pyjamas. She wondered if Naegi liked them.

Not that it mattered to her, of course. Emotions such as 'like' and 'love' had no place in the heat of battle.

The concept of love seemed horrible to Ikusaba, anyways. Most men and women created fake, perfect images of themselves to appeal to the opposite sex, to engage in reproduction. Lust seemed to fill their minds, and make up and chemicals filled their bodies. Ikusaba was rather disgusted by that, in all honesty. She avoided it as much as she could. Ikusaba didn't know what to think of her sister, who became successful off of something like that.

Then, it crossed her mind. Naegi was a boy. Maybe he was just like the rest them, and was only after sexual intercourse.

No, it couldn't be. The boy was too innocent for things like that.

...

Ikusaba could check, just to make sure. If he was like any other disgusting teenager, it meant he would have... Sexual documentation. She could just make a quick sweep of the room, to confirm he didn't have any of these documents in his possession.

And so, Ikusaba proceeded to look through a boy's room without his consent.

She found some 'documents' rather quickly. It looked like they had just been carelessly tossed into his closet. Ikusaba was sure she'd have to be more thorough in her search.

The battle-hardened veteran picked up one of the books, which had a fairly suggestive cover that probably wasn't appropriate for school. She opened it to a random page, and looked at its content.

"..."

Ikusaba promptly discarded it.

Naegi was disgusting. Just like the rest of them.

Completely and utterly disgusting.

She couldn't believe she had been fooled. She had bought his act completely, and even grew to like him.

No. It wasn't like. It was just respect. Misplaced respect.

Behind her, the door opened. She could hear the legs of a chair clatter as they hit the ground.

"I'm back. Sorry it took so long." Naegi entered the room, completely oblivious.

He walked over to Ikusaba. "Hey, what are you looking..."

Ikusaba turned to glare at him, with her expressionless eyes. Naegi looked over her shoulder, and realized what had occurred while he was gone.

"...at..." Naegi finished his sentence as realization dawned on him.

Ikusaba stood up, staying expressionless. "You are a disgusting person, Naegi-kun."

Her blank eyes glared at Naegi, making him extremely uncomfortable, if he wasn't enough already.

"Ah, no, you've got it wrong, really!" Naegi tried to explain that he was innocent.

"What have I got wrong, Naegi-kun?"

"Those aren't mine! Yamada-san pushed them onto me! I swear!"

Ikusaba continued to stare at Naegi.

"Really, Naegi-kun?"

"Really! He was trying to promote some doujin he made! I haven't even touched them!" Naegi fiercely defended his case.

He couldn't tell whether Ikusaba believed him or not. Her unreadable face showed no signs of, well, anything.

"Really? Naegi-kun."

She was saying his name quite a bit... Naegi took that as a sign that she was angry.

He tried to redirect the conversation to another topic, and worry about any contradictions later.

"A-anyways, that's not why we're here. It's already eleven fifty, and I wouldn't want to keep you up. We can ask Yamada-san about all this tomorrow."

Ikusaba was silent for a few seconds. She was fully aware that Naegi was trying to move away from the current conversation. This time, she decided to let him do so.

"I shall be expecting information on this book from Yamada tomorrow."

After apologizing to Yamada in advance in his head, Naegi said, "All right then... Let's get to work."

They both went over to Naegi's table, and took their seats.

The standard tables placed in every dorm were decently sized, but were meant for independent studying. This made it so that Naegi and Ikusaba had to sit closer then what's normally considered comfortable to get a good view of the textbooks and notes on the desk. They didn't seem to mind, however, and, shoulder to shoulder, Naegi began to point out what he was having trouble with.

Ikusaba wasn't as smart as some people attending their school, but she definitely wasn't the dumbest, either. While her brain was wired to operating guns and her knives, she could still keep up with the more advance classes in Hope's Peak, if just barely. Naegi was in the same sort of situation; having an average level of intelligence, if he studied hard, he just managed to pass by the skin of his teeth.

When the two of them worked together, they managed to get plenty more done, and understand some concepts much better.

Those concepts wasn't the only thing Naegi was thinking about, though. He was slightly nervous, working so close to a girl. Their shoulders were constantly in contact with each other, and his mind wandered to how soft and slightly cold Ikusaba's shoulder was.

Maybe he should grab a blanket or something for her. But then, it would be awkward if she didn't want it.

What if she did want it?

Well, if she did want a blanket, she'd ask, right?

But what if she was too shy?

No, that couldn't be. It was Ikusaba. She probably had never been shy before in her life.

But what if she was shy, and was too embarrassed to ask?

That would be cute. That would be really, really cute.

Naegi decided to just get her one.

Ah, but what if she didn't want one in the first place?

"Naegi-kun?" Naegi's mind was pulled from the circles it was running around.

"Huh? Yes?"

"I was asking if..."

No way! She really did want a blanket! Naegi scolded himself for being so oblivious.

"Of course! I'll get you one right away!" Naegi shot out of his seat, with all intentions of finding the poor, cold girl a blanket.

Ikusaba looked up at Naegi, with her never changing expression. "Get me what, Naegi-kun? I just asked where you were in your History class."

"Ah..." Naegi slowly sat back down. "Of course. I'm just past page 153..."

"We're around the same place, then. Where are your notes?"

Naegi gestured to one of the notebooks scattered around the place, filled with humiliation. "Over there."

"Then, I shall take a look. Is there anything you need help with here?"

Naegi answered Ikusaba, and decided that he should probably concentrate more on his studies. He had figured that was enough embarrassment for one day.

And so, the two continued to study.

Their study session ended around one in the morning.

Ikusaba put a notebook to the side. "All that's left is math, correct?"

Naegi yawned. "Ah, yeah, but I think I can handle that by myself. I wouldn't want to keep you up any longer."

"Of course. Then I shall take my leave." Ikusaba got up to leave.

On her way out, Naegi said, "Thanks for everything, Ikusaba-san. You helped me out way more than you needed to."

"It's fine. Goodnight, Naegi-kun." The door shut behind her.

Naegi sighed. He should give her something for helping him out as much as she did. Too bad he didn't know anything she liked.

Ikusaba walked through the hallway filled with artificial light, with no apparent spring in her step to speak of. She had just spent the last hour putting in effort for seemingly no compensation. It felt different than that, though. As if spending time with Naegi was a reward in itself.

She shook her head. What a stupid thought.

A thought occurred to Ikusaba, and she changed her destination to the laundry room. She planned to add a few things to her study notes, she decided she could start her laundry, and collect it after she was done her work.

Naegi sorted through a pile of textbooks, back in his room. He wished he could sleep, but there was still some work left.

Well, at least there was only math left to do, and then he could head to bed. Though, it crossed his mind that he should probably pick up his laundry before he slept. It should be done by now.

Naegi yawned. He decided this night had been a good one.

This was definitely one of my longer ones.

What did you think? Was it perfect? Review! Did it drag on for far too long? Review! Just review! It's good for you!

Thanks for reading, and see you next time. Hopefully.