Here I am again writing about underrated ships and the DA class. This was written for ga-party's writing challenge on tumblr and may or may not get a continuation. I would like to since I love the ship and the idea itself is hilarious to me, but I know myself so I promise nothing.
When it came to night college classes, there were only three kinds of people that would submit themselves to something like that.
Firstly, there were the people who were working hard, trying to make ends meet. Their busy schedule was rather unpredictable and clashed with any kind of university timetable during the day. So taking night classes was the only option which worked. The people who managed to pull something like that off were, to put it frankly, amazing and deserving of respect.
Secondly, there were just the general night owls. The people who for some reason felt much more awake at night than they did during the day and that state prompted them to take the night classes instead.
And last, but not least, there were... vampires?
A vampire trying to get a college degree in literature and creative writing probably seemed like a plot for a sitcom or something equally hilarious, but it was, in fact, Nobara Ibaragi's life. She was a very diligent, young vampire with a desire to learn about literature and hopefully become a bestselling author one day.
A dream that Hayate liked to make fun of daily. Because even if she did manage to publish a book, it wasn't like she could become a author in the way she wished she could. She was immortal so she could not appear in pubic for long. People were bound to notice that her appearance was not changing in the slightest and then she'd have to mysteriously disappear from the public eye forever.
Hayate was right. But what use was it to constantly repeat something Nobara already knew and to destroy her hopes and dreams? The answer to that question was- not something Rui and Hajime would have in their house. Which lead to Hayate being beaten up and kicked out of the house more times than Nobara could count. Of course, he wound up coming home every day at dawn. After all, they were one big family even if Hayate liked to run his mouth.
Rui and Hajime themselves were supportive of Nobara's aspiration in spite of the obvious issues there were with it. They were practically like her parents- they loved her and wanted to see her happy. Rui had exclaimed that going to college would be a good idea not only because of Nobara's desire to learn, but also because of her desire to find friends which was equally strong if not even more so. According to Rui finding friends in class was more likely to happen than it was to befriend a random person in the park in the middle of the night. Most of those people were not trustworthy anyway and even though Nobara was more than capable to take care of herself, Rui did his best to keep her safe.
But there was one thing that Rui had overlooked. Most people taking night classes were half dead. Or they seemed like that to Nobara. They seemed to use every free second they had to take a nap, no matter how short. They often napped during classes too. So when you added up Nobara's natural shyness and people's unwillingness to get involved in conversation at 2 am the friendship mission of the young vampire was already doomed. Or it would have been if it hadn't been for one particular individual that didn't seem to behave like the rest.
Her name was Mikan Sakura. And unlike every else, somehow she didn't look sleepy or tired. On the contrary, she was always had a bright smile on her face and greeted everyone enthusiastically. She was the flicker of light for Nobara. A flicker who, unfortunately, sat on the other side of her room with what appeared to be friends of hers. And Nobara was far, far too awkward to suddenly change seats just so she could sit closer to her. So Nobara did what she did best- she observed from afar.
Before she realized it, what had once been admiration and a desire to befriend the girl, had slowly turned into a crush without her even realizing it. It had started with random thoughts that came into her mind.
Oh, Mikan-chan is cute today. Well, she's always cute, but she's especially cute today.
This outfit looks really nice on Mikan-chan.
Mikan-chan looks really happy and bright today.
And of course, the iconic time Mikan had come with her hair down and not in her usual pigtails and diligent student Nobara had not been able to concentrate on the lesson at all, too busy staring at the other girl. If anyone had noticed, she would have never been able to live it down. She would have had to drop out of college and tell Rui that they had to immediately move to Canada.
The more time passed and the more Nobara observed Mikan, than more unreachable the other girl seemed to her. Until one day she was not.
It had been about 1 am. There was still time until class started, but Nobara had come early. She'd been too focused on her book to notice someone nearing her seat until that someone plopped on the one next to it. That's when she raised her head from her book and almost had a heart attack when she saw who exactly it was that was sitting next to her. Mikan Sakura looked cuter than ever in a red shirt and black overalls, her hair was down again, just like that one time, ad her smile was brighter than the sun.
Nobara was completely smitten. So much that at first it didn't seem to register that Mikan was saying something. She awkwardly cleared her throat. "Umm… w-would you kind repeating that?"
"I can't understand one part of the book at all and the professor said it was very important. Do you think you could help me? Pleeeeeeease! You always seem like you know what's going on in class. I'm doomed without you" she actually whined.
To Nobara was as endearing as it was funny. She doubt she was the only person here who could help Mikan so her claim that she was 'doomed if Nobara didn't help her' was not quite true. But Nobara extremely thankful that it had been exactly her that Mikan had asked for her. It seemed like her nerdiness would finally pay off.
"Of course. Umm… what part do you not understand?"
Somehow Mikan's smile managed to get brighter and the girl made herself comfortable next to Nobara, sitting as close to her as possible. Which Nobara might have noticed, if she wasn't too busy dying internally.
"I'm Mikan Sakura! And you are?"
"N-Nobara… Ibaragi..."
"It's nice to meet you, Nobara-chan! Thanks for agreeing to help. I hope we can be friends from now on!"
"M-Me too..."
Or something more, was what Nobara's brain screamed.
