(A/N: Hey there! As a writer I try not to rely on author notes too much, but since DL is a pretty complicated series with multiple routes and canons, I feel like I need to explain the context a little. I'm gonna treat this AU like the post-Dark Fate tokuten CDs - in other words, all the boys are fairly friendly with each other, but nobody ever became Adam or the Demon King or anything like that. Karl Heinz is alive and still being a creepy puppetmaster off in the background somewhere. Anyway, for this first chapter, I refer a bit to one bit of Ayato canon where he talks with Karl Heinz and basically decides that he needs to go to a university in order to get a decent job, in order to buy his own house and become independent and support his wife, Yui. Yeah Ayato and Yui are married lol. I'm obviously not gonna re-write it since it already exists in canon, but if you haven't seen it then here it is!

Anyway this is a Diabolik Lovers college AU! Before you message me like "But Nat, the university's name is redundant!", I researched that shit and there are plenty of Japanese universities that end in "Gakuen University" so yeah! Also, there might be trans headcanons in this fic, and male/male relationships between Sakamakis and Mukamis, so if you can't handle those then please don't read this! Also, I'm sorry if this ends up looking more like an American university. I'm currently attending one, so…;-; Anyhow thanks so much for reading! It's okay to tell me what kind of shenanigans you guys wanna see them do too!)


Ayato was Karl Heinz's first son to be accepted into college. It took him an unreal amount of studying time - more than he ever thought he could manage, at least - and frankly it shocked all of his brothers, especially considering the fact that he had almost no help save for Yui, and they didn't think it was possible for such an attention-hungry guy to shut himself away for so long. In any case, they were all forced to admit, at least to themselves, that Ayato wasn't the dumb brother.

Reiji had always intended on pursuing higher education, though he had always been under the impression that it wouldn't be human school anymore. Upon seeing Ayato apply for a human university, though, he changed up his plans a bit, since he could not let Ayato of all people get ahead of him. The two didn't communicate on which colleges they were applying to, and there weren't many colleges that allowed them to only take classes at night, so by coincidence they ended up applying to (and enrolling at) the same place - Bell Gakuen University. That was fine; it's not like they'd be seeing much of each other, anyway. They'd just have to suffer a long car ride with only each other's company, and then they'd be on their own.

Every Sakamaki was already aware of how distant they were with each other, but they became incredibly aware of that fact when Reiji and Ayato announced they were leaving in a week. They hadn't really intended on any of their brothers leaving before, even after Ayato landed himself a girlfriend.

Laito had congratulated Ayato at the time, but he couldn't work out how he felt about it at all. He found himself starting to rummage through all his stuff, looking for old things from their childhood. He told himself that he was checking to make sure he didn't have any of Ayato's stuff in his room by accident, that way Ayato wouldn't miss anything when he left, but his true intentions were a little different.

He didn't have anything meaningful, or anything that Ayato could potentially take with him when he left for college, but he could find lots of stuff that reminded him of the past: old shoes from each of the triplets all lined up in the back of his closet, a drawer full of cool-looking rocks that Ayato had picked up as a child, a few t-shirts he had accidentally borrowed from Ayato that he had forgotten to give back. They didn't fit him anymore.

Laito took great care to put everything exactly back where it was, and started to rub his eyes. He left to go blow his nose, which was running partly from the dust and partly from the fact that he was getting just a little bit choked up for some reason.

But because of the strained and impersonal relationship the Sakamakis had, Laito could only show those types of nostalgic feelings in private. When it actually came time for Ayato and Reiji to leave, nobody even bothered to give any goodbyes (save for Yui, who was weeping openly). In fact, Laito wouldn't have even been alerted to the fact that they were leaving, except for Reiji pulled him aside to give him a few cooking resources before he left.

And from then on, the Sakamaki house got a little bit quieter.

At college, Reiji and Ayato both got one-person dorms. Reiji, as per his usual interests, majored in chemistry while Ayato went in undeclared. Reiji, who already had lots of experience studying and cooking for himself, was able to adapt quickly to college life. Even as a freshman he was getting involved in extracurricular activities like the debate team, and he had proven himself to be a leader amongst his peers. Reiji didn't have many friends, but since he was so focused on his work, he was doing fine. Contacting his brothers would have just stressed him out, so he refrained from doing so. He would have been all right if he had never seen them again.

College suited Ayato a lot better than high school did. His teachers never nagged him if he put his head down in class, and there was much less mandatory in-class participation (which scared him to death in high school), and if he was feeling overwhelmed and needed to skip class then nobody would bother him about it. He did struggle, though; learning off of textbooks was not his forte at all, and he didn't exactly have anyone who could teach him face-to-face. Still, he worked hard and got into the rhythm of things after a while, and ended up being a straight-B student. The academics weren't the thing that Ayato struggled with the most, though.

Even if he hadn't had the best relationship with his brothers, Ayato got painfully homesick within the first few weeks. Not just for Yui, who he admittedly missed like hell, but for his brothers too. He had picked up a bizarre new habit of talking to himself as he worked, just to give himself the illusion of some verbal interaction. He didn't even notice he was homesick till he was mumbling his way through some math equations one morning, when the sun was just starting to rise, and he asked out loud "Did the professor go over this?" and he looked up at some imaginary person that wasn't really there, expecting an answer. He realized how stupid he looked, and decided to take a break, but as it turns out he couldn't find the energy to try again for the rest of the day. He had realized how lonely he was, and he felt lethargic and he wanted to go home.

Fortunately for his GPA, he was able to get back to work the next day, but that lonely feeling didn't disappear. Everything seemed to remind him of either his brothers or Yui. He would fantasize about showing his brothers around campus, and how cool and smart he would look. He'd pass by a stall selling crepes and think that if Kanato were here, he could use his meal card to buy one for him, and Kanato would be like, "Wow, Ayato, you're so generous!" Haha…

Of course he missed Yui the most. Sleeping in a bed alone was torture, after spending so long in bed with her. He didn't realize how much he had been relying on her. And yet he couldn't bring himself to call her - he was sure that if he heard her voice, he would immediately pick up and go home. And he was supposed to be doing this for her. So he stopped himself from contacting her entirely.

But at this point, he was even praying that he would run into Reiji by chance. Imagine that! Ayato was actually hoping to see Reiji! If his past self could see him now, he'd be shocked!

The semester was halfway over and midterms were rolling around. Ayato's depressive mood was affecting his grades, which was only making him more depressed. He was even raising his hand in his classes as a last-resort effort to get himself some kind of attention. Studying for midterms was near impossible because Ayato just couldn't pay attention anymore, and by the time he got his test results back, he was seriously considering dropping out before the semester was even over. He wanted to forget about getting a degree and a job and a house, he wanted to go home.

So he finally swallowed his pride enough to call them - not Yui, because he couldn't handle that, but one of his brothers. A phone call was normal, right? Visiting home halfway through the semester was embarrassing, but Ayato could at least call them. He could call Laito, if anyone - Laito would always talk to him before.

Ayato was feeling sort of like a little kid whose mom had left him at the grocery store, so if Laito didn't pick up, Ayato might've started crying - that's how stressed he was at this point. Luckily, Laito did pick up, and he started talking right off the bat.

"Ayato! You took way too long to call, I thought you'd at least check in after a week or two! It's been soooo quiet without you! You didn't forget anything, did you? Hey, hey, did you meet any cute sorority girls? Are you going to some crazy parties? That's no good, Ayato, you gotta stay focused on your studies!"

Before Ayato could respond, he heard a few other familiar voices conversing in the background. Kanato's familiar over-emotional voice, Shu's deep disinterested drawl, Subaru's rough gravelly tone...and Yui's voice too. Laito pulled away from the phone to tell them to quiet down, and "let me talk to him first", before returning to barraging Ayato with questions.

"...And what are you studying? You didn't even tell us that! The others want to know too! ...Ah, Kanato wants to know what the food is like there! Oh, but are you doing all right on your own? Do you miss us~?"

That last question was clearly intended as a joke, but Ayato couldn't help but take it too seriously. He gulped, before responding shakily, "Of course not. Who would miss you?"

Laito laughed it off, since that was the reaction he had expected. "Well we all miss you! Especially poor Bitch-chan...You were totally blowing her off, you know?"

"Wha-?!"

"It's okay, it's okay! She's been so sweet about it, she just keeps saying, 'Oh, he's probably busy! Ayato probably wants to focus on school! He's working so hard!' and stuff like that. Even though she was definitely lonely. Haha, it's like you have your own little cheerleader~"

Ayato swallowed hard. "...I…" He couldn't figure out where to start.

After a moment of silence, Laito spoke up again. His voice was a little softer now. "We all miss you, though. When are you coming to visit?"

"Laito," Ayato spluttered. "Rather than that, you should come here."

"Eh? You want us to come out and visit your school?"

"No! Well, sure - but, that is, you should apply!"

"...Hah?"

Ayato was talking almost too fast for Laito to understand. "You and Kanato should both apply. We've been together since birth right? And well of course I'm fine on my own but wouldn't it be much better if you applied too? Especially since I think you'd like it here and when I'm rich and famous I want to be able to say that my brothers are successful too, so, so…" He wasn't entirely sure where he was going with that.

When Ayato's voice trailed off, Laito started to laugh. His voice sounded off, and it cracked a little bit. "You...You're ridiculous!"

"Does that mean you won't?"

"No, I will! Since you asked, I will! Ahh, I'm so happy right now, it's strange…"

Ayato lowered his voice somewhat, as if someone might overhear him even though he was all alone. "Tell...Tell the same thing to Chichinashi, okay?"

Ayato heard Laito sniffle from over the phone. "Of course! We'll apply together." He took a deep breath to try and recompose himself. Apparently Ayato had caught him off-guard. "Speaking of which, you should be talking to her, not me. She's been missing you too."

"All...All right…" Ayato still wasn't sure if he was mentally prepared for that, but if Yui agreed to apply to the university too, he figured he could handle talking to her now.

He heard the sound of Laito and Yui's voices talking hurriedly on the other side of the phone. When Yui did get ahold of the phone, it was easy to tell she was crying. "Ayato…! Of course I'll apply! I want to go to school with you…!"

Ayato turned red immediately. "Hey…! Quit blubbering, I don't want my brothers to see you like that!"

"I can't help it...I'm really happy…! Because Ayato wanted to be with me…"

"Of course I did, stupid! You're practically…" Ayato felt his cheeks burn, and tried to lower his voice. "...all I could think about for the past few weeks. But don't go around telling people that."

"Ayato…! Me too! I was wondering why you wouldn't call sooner…"

"That's because...I thought if I heard your voice, I would want to go home." It was more than a little embarrassing to admit, but one way or another he had to get his feelings out.

Yui choked back a sob. "I love you so much...I'll come visit your campus during break, okay? And I'll apply and join you next year! I promise I'll study hard so I get accepted!"

"Stop crying already…I love you too. I'll see you soon."

"Really soon!" Yui tried to put on a more cheerful tone. "We'll catch up properly during break! You're doing great, Ayato! We're all proud of you!"

Those were her parting words, and she hung up. Ayato stared blankly ahead of him, feeling his face finally cool down. Next year would definitely be better.