Well, it seems that I'm a roll lately; which is rather surprising because I usually don't write this much in such a short time. Hmm, maybe because it's almost my four year anniversary on here. Anyhow, it is yet again set in the academy time frame, since any other time, unless AU, would be kind of depressing, angsty, and wonderfully violent! Anyhow, I hope you enjoy! Oh yes, the title comes from a song out of the Angel Beats soundtrack, which kind of inspired me to write this.

Date Published: 12/1/13
Word Count: 5,140
Page Count: 9

Chapter 1: Nocturne in the Afternoon

Every once in a while someone lets their guard down in the most unexpected place. Most of the time though, this never happens outside of certain safe places, such as their own room or safe haven. This though, happened to be one of those rare occasions.

The sky outside the Novus Orbis Librarium's military academy was very gloomy that day. The bright sun was nowhere to be seen, hiding behind all of those invading gray clouds. It was kind of like a cowardice army, running away at the first sight of some sort of trouble despite having nowhere to run to.

Inside the building that could possible challenge Versailles in size (it wasn't even a single percent as extravagant though) was probably just as gray. There where no young students frolicking around talking with their companions, or any teachers strolling the halls to keep them in line. This though wasn't due to the water cycle, but because classes for the day have been concluded earlier than usual and most of the students returned to their dorms, where at some sort club activity, or busy shopping in the business district.

The halls that where usually so noisy was now as silent as a corpse, which made it a bit unsettling. After all, what's more horrifying then walking down a hall that seemed to stretch for miles with no people in sight? The only thing that could make worse was if the lights started to flicker and strange noises began to come out of nowhere. The silence that created this eeriness began to fade though when the sound of steps began to reverberate throughout the hallway.

The lone person who was walking was a young red-haired woman who wore rather strange hairpieces. Like the rest of the students, she wore the usual white and blue uniform. The only real difference was her gray skirt, which was much longer compared to the usual overly short ones. That of course was due to her finding short skirts undignified, for one shouldn't wear something that showed that much skin. The other problem that was thanks to the length was how easy it would be for one to get a look at her underwear. Such a thing may not affect some people, but she wouldn't let something like that to happen to her. She had far too much pride for something like that to happen.

The young woman was heading off to the student council office in search of the ever-popular yet anti-social president. The female known as Tsubaki had recently made plans to spend some free time with her childhood friend, Jin. A happy smile crossed her face at the thought of the cold blond, "It'll be nice to talk with him. He's been so busy recently, we haven't had any time together."

Recently, the young frigid man was swamped with much work due to his fellow student council members getting sick. How exactly they all managed to get sick seemed to be a mystery, but some came to believe it was due to one of the members being sick and spreading it to the others. Jin, being rather withdrawn from the rest of them more than likely didn't come in direct contact with the original carrier and managed to escape its grasp. Unfortunately for him, he ended up with a mountain load of paper, which possibly could rival one of the hierarchical cities. Tsubaki had of course offered to help him with all the extra work, but he told her he could get it done alone. After a few days of non-stop work, and lack on the required hours of sleep, he finally managed to get through most of the mountain of paper work that was taunting him like the Cheshire Cat.

In no time flat, she reached the door to the student council. For a moment she thought to knock against the white door with the words Student Council printed across, but opened it anyway. The room, despite being dedicated to the most powerful students in the whole school wasn't much different from a typical classroom. It had the same type of tables, chairs, windows, coloring, blackboard, and teacher desk. Despite its bland design, it was still a large, bright room filled with many windows. It's rather sad actually, that such a pristine school couldn't even dedicate a different design for the student council. It was even sadder when one remembered that the vast majority of students came from high-ranking and extremely wealthy families.

Her crystal blue eyes began to scan the bland room, searching for the one thing that would stand out, the bright yellow hair that belonged to Jin. She spotted him quickly; he was sitting at the front table, at he edge of it. To her surprise, he was slouched over, his arms folded out on the table with his head resting on top of them. All around him was piles and piles of vicious paper, two of them where to his left while the rest where spread out before him. On the teacher desk there was even more paper scattered about. It seems that when the sick members return from their leave, they will have to deal with one very aggravated Jin.

Tsubaki was taken back a bit, for it was an extremely unexpected sight. Jin was the type to almost never let down his guard, but here he was, asleep like a little child laying against its mother in broad daylight. This was such an out of character thing for him, and she couldn't help but giggle as she brought a hand to her face. She then proceeded to move towards him, enjoying the tranquil scene before her. It wasn't often that Jin looked so peaceful due to his almost permanent icy gaze. Sure, he was polite to people, but that kindness he showed could never dissolve the look in his eyes and erase his scowl. The kindness he showed was usually two-dimensional, the type of kindness you preserve for people you dislike but don't despise.

When she reached him, she couldn't help but stare at him, taking in every little aspect of his features. His face was nuzzled against his folded arms while his chin floated above the table. The usual chilled look was nowhere to be seen, dissolved away due to sleep. Perhaps his dreams where engulfing him in some sort of warm light that melted away his frozen features. A sense of nostalgia engulfed her whole being, remembering the happy childhood she spent with him. No matter how much time passed, he always looked the happiest when he was asleep, when he could dream about a time that he was the happiest. She wasn't quite sure when that was, but whenever it was, it had to be a very special time for him.

Before long she moved her hand to his head, petting the soft strands of blond hair. She ran them through her hands, feeling the texture and how surprisingly smooth it was. Just the touch of his hair against her skin made her feel just so serene, "It be nice if I could do this more often," she thought as a small smile crossed over her features. It would be nice if things could return to the way it was before, her being able to spend all her time next to him. She soon stopped playing with his hair as her hand started to slide down gently towards his face. To her surprise his face had retained the softness it had when they where children. She ran her thumb across his cheek, while enjoying every aspect of it.

At the moment a little idea crossed into her mind, which resulted in another small giggle to emerge from her mouth. She motioned both of her hands now to his glasses, pulling them away from his face gently. In the midst of her glasses snatching, Jin's eyes shot open, a sleepy gaze meeting her surprised look. In a matter of moments he motioned his left hand to grab one of her wrists.

It took a moment for his brain to register just who was stealing his glasses, "Tsubaki, why are you taking my glasses?" he asked with a soft look invading his usual cold emerald eyes. Now he certainly didn't expect this, nor did he understand why she nabbed them. There wasn't anything special about them; they are just a normal pair of glasses that didn't have any sort of special powers.

"Well, I just wanted to watch you sleep without your glasses," she explained while a small tint of red crossed over her face. She didn't expect him to wake up, and it didn't help she acted on impulse.

"I see," he began while raising his body upwards and letting go of her wrist, "And here I thought you wanted to talk, not watching my slumbering face," he replied with a tiny drop of sarcasm. He moved his hand to the bridge of his nose and began to rub the skin. It seemed that sleeping with glasses on didn't just cause the frames to bend, but to place far too much pressure on the nose.

"I do want to speak with you, but I also didn't want to wake you up. You've been working so hard lately so I thought I should let you sleep," she spoke while pulling his glasses towards her chest. It was a hard decision to come to, let him sleep or talk with him. Either way she looked at it though, she would be able to be with him, and his health was far more important than whatever random thing they would end up talking about. Just being by his side, be he asleep or awake, was enough for her.

"You shouldn't worry that much, if you want to talk we should just talk. We don't have that much time together, so you shouldn't waste it watching me sleep," he spoke in a rather scolding tone. He couldn't help but let out a tinge of annoyance, they rarely have any time to talk or see each other. Either he's too busy with council work, or she's busy studying, scolding, or playing around with her friends. This happened to be one of the few days that they not only got done early (something to do with teacher training) but he managed to have some free time after he finished up all that paper work. It was the perfect opportunity to spend some time together, unless her friends end up stalking them in hope of something happening.

"I know that but," with that she turned away from him, her head dropping a bit to the right, "I couldn't help myself. When you're asleep, you seem just so happy and peaceful. It just makes me feel happy, and it lets me think back to when we where little." It was just a fraction of her feelings, but she couldn't just go out and tell him everything. If she did, she would just end up embarrassed and saying never mind while running off somewhere hoping he'd forget everything.

"Besides," she started up while returning her head to face his, "You haven't been sleeping much recently because all of this work. I don't want you getting sick because you spent all of your time with me," she explained with a serious tone. Him getting sick was something she definitely didn't want happening. She would just end up blaming herself, thinking that because she took up too much of his time that he could have dedicated to sleeping. His health was much more important than anything else.

A sigh escaped from his mouth, some things never change now do they? She's always been the type to worry over one's health, be it over something simple or stupid. The ironic thing was that she never seemed to take any of his concerns to heart when it involved her unhealthy love of chocolate and how she ate far too much of it. He would always tell her to cut back on it, but no, she would never listen to him.

From that his brain traveled backwards in time when they where much younger. He started to vividly remember waking up after practicing his swordsmanship and finding her just staring at him. At first he was a little taken back, but eventually got used to her odd actions. After awhile of this strange trend, he remembered his adoptive father saying, "She's always looking at you with such a loving gaze. You're luck that you have someone who really cares about you so much Jin."

Even now she bears such a gaze towards him, perhaps an even stronger one, "Anyway, if you ever waste an opportunity to talk with me just because you like watching me sleep, don't complain about it later," he spoke in a cold tone. He was annoyed by this, why would she rather watch him sleep then to talk with him? He spent most of his time stuck with a bunch of annoying people he wished he could get away from, and when he finally had the chance to spend his time with a person he didn't dislike she decided watching him was a better option. He could never understand how people's minds worked, and he couldn't help but feel aggravated.

"I didn't mean to upset you, I'm just worried about you," she responded while looking downwards a bit. It was odd for him to act; he never behaved in such a cold manner towards her before. But here he was, annoyed by her actions over concern towards his well-being. A small part of her though was happy, happy to know how much precious their small time together was to him.

"I'm sorry, it's just," he paused for a moment, surprised by his own apology. He rarely ever did such a thing among many others, "I much rather talk with you then sleep. I can make up my sleep anytime, but I can't do that with you." Now here was another thing that has surprised him. He never spoke things like this, but here he was, spewing sappy things out of his mouth that on one would ever believe. After that he turned his head away from her while thinking, "Damn it. Why the hell did I just do that? I need to stop acting like this around her." He hated when he acted like this, especially when he listen to that annoying little voice in his head telling him to act on emotions he rather not acknowledge.

It was at this moment the room was completely silent. It seemed that neither one wanted to say anything about what just happened, out of possible fear of what type of conversation would follow. After a little while Jin returned his gaze towards her and decided to break the silence, "Well theirs no point talking about this subject because we'll just keep disagreeing." This seemed to be how their disagreements always went; they would bicker and never come to common ground till they both gave up.

"Yes, that does seem like a possibility. We would just go back and forth like a married couple," she responded. It wasn't till after she spoke did she notice she compared themselves to a married couple. It was at that moment her face heated up a good bit, and that resulted in her moving her head away from him as quickly as possible, "N-never mind that. I wasn't thinking."

Jin cracked a smile at her discomfort, it was a thing he would only do for her. If it were some other person, he would just think they where being an idiot. When he noticed the blush growing stronger across her turned away face he did something that was rather out of character, he laughed. He proceeded to go and say something unexpected, "A married couple huh? You know, I wouldn't mind being married to you. Any other woman would probably annoy me to no end."

Knowing his luck, he'd probably end up with some stuck up, full of herself noble who only cared about a fake image. It was how most of the female students acted, they only cared about preserving some stupid image while not really caring about anything else. It was truly sad to see so many people act like that. It was either that, or he would somehow end up with someone like Noel, useless, bothersome, and annoying. With Tsubaki though, he could actually have some sort of happiness, she was basically the only person he was genuine to.

She returned her head to looking at him, shock taking over her features. Her face started to gain more heat from his unexpected comment, and her eyes gained a sparkled to them. She was quite for a moment, wondering how she should respond to him, "Well, I wouldn't mind being your wife." She was happy that neither Noel nor Makoto where around. They would probably start teasing her about it. Of course any other time she would never say such a thing, or outright disagree with what she just said. When it was just the two of them though, she didn't have a problem admitting her feelings to a certain extent.

"That's good to know," he responded with a slight smile, at this moment he really didn't know what was going through his head but didn't seem to care. At least this lets him know that if he is required to marry someone of his own choice (which he wouldn't want to do anyway) he knows who he would pick. After all, what's the point of being married to someone he didn't love? Ignore that word, he doesn't love her at all, he just cares for her. Well, that's what he tells himself anyway.

She didn't say anything to him, but the happy look plastered all over her face did all of the speaking for her. Her whole entire being felt joy pulsating throughout her due to his unexpected words. This was one of those rare moments where she wasn't denying any of her feelings towards him, but actually embracing them. It may be he closest thing to a confession of his true feelings for her, and all she could was smile brightly.

"Tsubaki, can I have my glasses back now?" asked Jin while getting up from his seat and bringing her back to the reality before her. He began to stretch his now sore back while trying to get the kinks out of it. During this, he happened to notice that the door to the room was open just a tiny bit.

"O-oh yes, here you go Jin," she responded while handing his glasses towards him. After he placed them back on his face, he looked back over to the opened door. This time though he noted two pair of eyes watching them, "How am I not surprised?" he thought while automatically knowing exactly who those eyes belonged to. Those two where always butting into his business in hope that something romantic would happen between him and Tsubaki. It seemed like they had nothing better to do then watch them.

With that revelation he began to walk away from the desk and towards Tsubaki. His brain that seemed to be on the fritz today and it had an evil little thought dancing around and he began to think, "This should give him a surprise. They are always expecting something, so perhaps this would get them to leave us alone." He stopped right in front of her, and his eyes darted quickly over to the unwanted guests, "Why do I always end up doing wired things because of these people?" He would normally never act in such a way, but when these people where surrounding him he felt compelled to act differently, as if their personalities where affecting his.

After that thought, he continued onwards with his out of character plan. He moved his hand towards her face and placed it onto her cheek, but on completely so his hand was blocking the view her lips.

"Jin! What are you doing?!" she yelled at him, while not having any possible idea why he was being so forward all of a sudden. He would never get this close to her, but here he was being mere inches away. She couldn't control the level of heat rising on her face or her quickening heat rate.

He didn't say anything to her, but his eyes seemed to be sending some sort of secrete message. They weren't filled with ice, annoyance, or anything else he was known for by others. Deep inside his light green eyes there was just some sort of calmness. In a matter of seconds that seemed like hours he ducked his face towards her. Tsubaki nearly jumped away from him due to how close his face was to hers, and how his lips where just oh so close to hers, "J-Jin?" she asked in a shaky voice. She had absolutely no clue what he was doing, and was shocked by these strange actions. Another part of her though was hoping that he would just kiss her already instead of just hovering over her while getting her hopes up.

"Just play along," he whispered lowly. Something about the surprise and hope in her eyes made him wonder just what was going through her head. He couldn't really tell if she actually wanted him to kiss her or if she was just completely caught off guard. In a few seconds time they both heard a squeal of joy emitting from the doorway. At that moment he let go of her face, and they both turned their heads in unison to look at the door. His face was completely unfazed, but hers was a scarlet red.

"Noel! I told you to be quite!" complained a voice in an annoyed tone from the hallway.

"I-I'm so sorry Makoto! It was so cute and unexpected that I couldn't hold it in!" responded the other voice in a bit of a panicky tone.

"What are you two doing here?!" yelled Tsubaki as she began to walk towards the door, and if it was possibly little puffs of smoke would be coming out of her head. How come whenever she's doing something with Jin, these two are always spying on them? She told them to leave them alone for the day, but here they are to mess around with her and spy on their every move like some sort of obsessed fans.

"Crap! Run for it Noel!" yelled Makoto as she saw her angry friend walking towards them. After that comment she began to run away from the door in the hall as fast her legs could carry her. Noel quickly followed after her, though she did trip up a bit and almost fell on her face during her escape.

"Jeez you two! I'll make you two clean the whole room when I get back!" she yelled with a red face from both anger and embarrassment. She turned back and walked over to Jin with an annoyed face, "Why did you do that? They are just going to tease me later." Despite her annoyed tone, she couldn't help but hide the fact she was disappointed.

"If I didn't do so, they would have followed us the whole entire day," he explained while enjoying the look on her face. It might be the only thing he would classify as cute.

A sigh emitted from her mouth, "That's true, they would have done that. You didn't have to do that though, you could have just yelled at them." She really wished he would have just yelled at them rather than getting her hopes up that he actually really cared for her, "I need to stop thinking about that," she thought while trying to shove the event out of her mind.

"I could have done that but I believe this plan worked out better," he began while walking towards the front of the desk. He began to pick up and organize the papers on the table. The two of them where rather obsessed with their relationship, and they would have kept it up if he just scolded them. No matter how many times he tried getting it through their heads, it just wouldn't stick. Besides, in their minds they where able to see something intimate, something they weren't expecting, "They would have been persistent. By having them see something like that, they won't want to follow us around anywhere."

She was silent for a moment before she started to talk, "I guess you're right, but still. Knowing them they are going to hound me for who knows how long." She knows how her roommates are; they would just go on and on about how cute they are. That, and no matter how many times she would try to tell them nothing happened, they wouldn't listen.

"Well, you could always say it's your divine right to keep them in line. If they continue to bother you, just throw them out or take their things," he explained while stacking all of the completed papers. There were a few papers that needed finishing, but it could be finished later on. He walked over to the front desk, and placed down the paper.

"Jin, I'm not apart of a monarchy so I can't kick them out. I guess I could say it was just a misunderstanding," she mumbled lowly as she watched his actions. She knew that no matter what she did, those two where going to bother her about it. In the end all she could say nothing happened and wait till some other thing distracts them. Knowing them, that wouldn't take very long.

"Who say's they'll believe you? They might think you're too embarrassed to admit it," he responded with a tiny little smirk. He did seem to enjoy messing with her. If it were anyone else, he would just end up being rude and uncouth about his actions. With her though, he could actually play around a little.

"I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place if you didn't go and pretend to…," she stopped herself at that. She could feel the blood rushing to her face again, "…to kiss me." It was at this moment a little part of herself reminded her yet again of how much she would have enjoyed it. That resulted in her telling herself to shut up.

"I'm sorry, but it did mange to get them going. I think dealing with some teasing is better than being stalked throughout the business district." The plans they made where rather simple, they would just walk around the sixth level, and glance at the different storefronts. It was akin to what one could believe to be a date. Of course they both deny that and just say it was a friendly outing. After all, it was one of the things they where best at.

"It's easy for you to say brother Jin," she retorted with a bit of annoyance seeping through her voice, "You're aren't the one being teased. You don't know how annoying it is to hear them insinuate things on a regular basis." The way they insinuate things where like an unfriendly reminder that she was almost always in a state of denial.

"That isn't true. Makoto has a tendency to say things to me," he responded while turning his head to look out the window. The weather seemed absolutely terrible, as if it would start raining any second. A part of him thought that walking around in that unsteady weather was a bad idea, but he wouldn't let a little cloudiness slow him down. It wasn't often he managed to have some free time at his disposal. As he continued to look out the window, a thought crossing his mind, "I guess it's alright since we don't have much time to talk. Perhaps it won't start raining till a later point."

"She does?" asked Tsubaki while moving her head to also look out the window, "That seems like her. I guess she enjoys to torment people." It seemed just like her to bother people over such things, but due to Jin's personality she couldn't help but wonder how that went.

"Now that she does," he responded with a sigh while walking towards her, "We can discuss her love of tormenting us as we walk. Shall we get going?" he asked in an almost gentlemanly way.

She gave him a sweet smile, "Yeah, let's. It's pointless to hang out around here and talk about her when we have plans." After all, they could just talk about their problems with a certain squirrel beastkin while walking around.

After that they headed out of the very boring room. For a moment Tsubaki was expecting to see her friends stalking around. Thankfully, they must have learned their lesson for the day and ran off to the safety of their room. Of course the thought of dealing with them later didn't sound all that fun.

"So then, what should we do? Get something to eat?" asked Jin. He had skipped eating lunch earlier so some food sounded good right around now.

"That sounds fine. Can we go to the place that sells those chocolate parfaits?" she asked with a glimmer in her eyes. Her voice was filled with glee, for the idea of having something chocolaty sounded heavenly to her.
"Alright, but you really need to hold back on all that chocolate. Maybe you should get something different, it would be better for you," he responded with a serious, scolding tone. He couldn't quite understand her love of the treat, he thought it was alright but the extent she loved it made him worry about her health.

She gave him a sweet, innocent puppy dog look, "I can't help it. Chocolate just has some sort of power over me. You don't have to worry about me brother Jin, the chocolate won't hurt me too much," she explained in a happy manner.

With that he pressed the subject no further, that look destroyed whatever resolve he had to scold her into eating something different.

"Tsubaki, do you think we need an umbrella?" he asked as his eyes wandered over to the windows in the hall. It hasn't started raining, but you never know when it could. That's just how Mother Nature is, cruel and unpredictable.

"I don' think so. I heard it won't rain till this evening, so we should be fine," she explained simply. The rain won't come to bother them till well after they have gone their separate ways. So until that time comes, they can enjoy each other's company and chat the day away.

Well, that's it, and I don't quite like the whole thing but oh well. Yet again I'm not so sure on how well I handled Jin's character, but oh well to that as well. This was originally going to be a one shot, but towards the end I got an idea on how I would expand upon the plot (wait, there's a plot?) so stay tune for the next chapter! Oh, and please make sure to review so I can read your opinions! Now off to read act one of Hamlet, boo.