Disclaimer: I do not own Battle Royale or any related characters. These one shots are based on the book (since I have not seen the movie), so if things are different, tough luck. The ideas of these have been swirling in my head forever and they occur before, during, and after (maybe) the book. I haven't read it in a couple of months, so if things are a bit off, please tell me. Beware: Alternate Couples Coming! Thirteen fics will be made total.

Ever After

Noriko Nakagawa x Shuya Nanahara

Summary: They were still together, but Noriko wasn't sure if it was what she wanted. He was there, but that didn't seem to mean quite as much as it used to.

Noriko sighed, looking around the cramped room before collapsing in a corner. So many things had changed, especially since coming to America. So many things had changed in the ten years it had been since Battle Royale. Twenty-five and she was still living. And she was living with Shuya, which to her fifteen-year-old self would have seemed like a dream come true. Imagine, her married to Shuya. But now, sometimes, it seemed as though she were with him more from obligation than love. Horrible, but true.

She shoved a box into a corner and started to unpack it, placing the items on a dresser. She had so few personal items that it wasn't even funny. Trying to make a dent in the Government wasn't as easy as it sounded (and it didn't sound too easy to begin with), but it had left little time for making memories or collecting trinkets. Footsteps down the hall let her know that Shuya was coming. She sighed, groaned, and collapsed again. She was twenty-five and felt weaker than anything. "Hey," Shuya came to her and put a hand on her shoulder as soon as he entered the room, "What's wrong."

"Everything," she shook her head, "Nothing."

He bent down and gathered her in his arms, "It's ok. Everything is all right. We're safe and we're living," he breathed into her hair.

It was true, they were living, but sometimes Noriko wondered. Were they really living? Or were they empty shells going through life because they could? She shook her head. Of course they were living. And it was moments like these when she knew that Shuya was the one for her. She wasn't with him out of obligation. She loved him. He had been through it all with her. She only wished that Shogo were there, too, because he would be saying a funny joke about how cute they looked or something. And he would probably have a cool, American girlfriend hanging off of his arm, looking suave. That would be Shogo. Too bad he was dead.

"It's all right."

Yes it was all right. She was fine. Instead of having pictures and trinkets, she would keep her memories in her heart and in her mind. She would love Shuya. He was all that she needed. They had survived together and they would continue surviving.