a/n: I've been holding on to this for a while now because I just brought Rayet into my other fic, and thought it might get confusing. But ah, why not? I don't see much on this pairing and it's one I like, so ~ :3
(just a warning, though - I'm not sure if/when I'll continue this, since my main fic has priority)
Rayet pressed her chin into the arms that were crossed over her knees. The pattering of fingers on a keyboard was the only sound that filled the room, made by a brunette girl intent on completing her essay in one night. It was already 11:30 pm, but Rayet was a night owl anyway. She stared at the page of her own textbook with intense disinterest. Biology was her worst subject, but it was the easiest of the science courses available that semester. And, more importantly, it was the easiest class that he was taking.
She closed her eyes and tucked her chin to her chest. This was so stupid. Why was she always so stupid? She had worked hard to seal away useless emotions, so what right had he to haul them out into the open again? Especially when he didn't even realize what he was doing when he was unreservedly kind to her, or when he casually did things that would make anyone else blush. For someone so insightful, he was awfully dense.
She flopped onto her side, bouncing with the mattress.
He had saved her, many times. But that's not why she liked him. There was something wonderfully sincere about him, yet his mind was a profound mystery she could not help but be fascinated by. Not to mention he was beautiful. She didn't normally think of boys as much more than, well… boys. But this person somehow stood apart. She hadn't even noticed it until recently - the soft fall of his hair, the quiet curve of his lips. When she closed her eyes she could see those round, amaranth eyes, somehow intense for all their impassivity. There was only one, now, but it was still just as pretty. He was annoyingly attractive to her.
His sister had once, under the current misunderstanding that she was interested in Inaho, said that she had a chance with him, but now… she wondered if those words still held any truth. Inaho was no closer to noticing women in that way than ever. A part of her wondered if he really had no interest, or if he simply kept the romantic side of him extremely private. Maybe he actually liked men.
She moaned slightly. No, that probably wasn't true… the only person he had ever shown the slightest interest in was that Martian girl. The one who was now the Empress of an entire planet and its surrounding space. Asseylum and her big green eyes and cute personality were a force to be reckoned with. She couldn't compete.
As if he'd want a struggling college student, a broke orphan with no direction and no significance at all. After all that had happened, she was still figuring out who she was and where she belonged. In the years before the war, she had expected to return to Vers as a wealthy heiress, so there had been no point in carefully considering a future, especially not one in which she was making it on her own. "Well-adjusted" was not a title she could yet claim. She'd be excess baggage to anyone, something he certainly didn't need.
She glanced at her phone. Should she text him? He was probably sleeping. There was nothing to text about, anyway, other than to complain about the studying she wasn't doing. She knew he would help her if she asked, but as much as that would give them time together, she felt pathetic needing his help. He was always helping her, anyway.
Her heart nearly came to a raging stop as the phone suddenly lit up and buzzed, slipping into the folds of her unmade bed with the vibrations. She picked it up and looked at the caller's name.
Kaizuka Inaho.
EH?! What did he want at this time of night?
"Your phone's ringing," said Inko, without turning from her laptop screen.
Rayet was usually listening to music through her earphones and often missed calls. And Inko habitually called them out to her. She stared at the name for a few seconds and then stuffed the phone under her pillow. She couldn't talk to him right now, she had to… study.
"You're not going to talk to him?" Inko looked at her with a sympathetic eye.
She had never actually told her best friend about her crush, but Inko knew nonetheless. Probably because it was a sentiment they shared. It takes one to know one, apparently…
Yet rather than chattering about him over their pillows late at night, the two never spoke of it. It was as though they were would-be rivals in a competition they had never even made it into, and neither cared to discuss it.
Rayet shook her head. "No… I need to study."
Maybe if she told herself that enough times, she'd actually get to work and stop daydreaming.
There was a knock at the door. It was Nina, dropping by to retrieve class notes from Inko.
"Why don't you just jump him already?" she suggested a few minutes later, having caught Rayet avoiding Inaho's second call, "Then even if he rejects you, you'll still get something out of it!"
Rayet stared at her like she had proposed a murder. "What?! I can't do that…"
"If anyone could do it, it's you, Rayet. Just wait till he's real close and spring it on him," she put her hands up like claws, "He may be Inaho, but he's still a boy… he won't be able to help himself once you get him going."
"Eh?!" Inko squeaked, looking extremely pale, "Inaho's not like that!"
"Oh come on, even Mr. Logic has to have basic male instincts. I bet he's actually a real perv."
Rayet fanned the wilting Inko with her biology notebook.
"Well I've got an exam tomorrow… see ya! Good luck, Rayet," she added with a wink and a giggle before vanishing out the door.
Rayet collapsed onto her bed. This was all ridiculous. Maybe if she ignored it long enough, this feeling would go away. Romance had never made sense to her - why she should care this much about a boring guy who spent his spare time looking for grocery store coupons was beyond her understanding. In any case, Nina's idea was pure madness.
Or was it... ?