AN: I really, really wanted to be the first to do this and it looks like I am. :) I wanted to give Shinichi and Murano a normal life so their relationship can go unhindered. ShiniAno is one of my favorite ships hands-down and I want to try and give their blossoming relationship justice. The chapters will be short, around 1000 words each, so you can expect the chapters to be somewhat frequent. (Two a week at most, the reason for this being that I have an Akame ga Kill fic that's high maintenance, not to mention a Nisekoi oneshot series, school, and Fire Emblem.) Either way, I hope you enjoy me on this little adventure! I have plans for it to be around 50 chapters, so eventually, it'll get to 50k+ words. Enjoy!

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Summary: Wherein Shinichi never gets inhabited by Migi and lives out his normal high schooling days. His interactions with Murano will go unhindered by horrifying events, and maybe they'll develop something a little more than the friends they've always been.

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Izumi flopped onto his bed, letting his backpack fall off of his tired shoulders with a soft thump. He sighed, contemplating why his life was so… painstakingly average. His grades were exceptional, yes, but nothing other than that stood out. His athletic ability was subpar, his social skills were nearly unevident, and his family didn't have any interesting quirks to their credit. So what was he to do?

What any other high-schooler would have done. Use the Internet.

Izumi logged into his computer with another sigh. Sure, his room was sparsely furnished, but it felt very home-y and he was very grateful his parents installed the desktop in his room for his own personal enjoyment. More than often; however, he'd use it solely for schoolwork, as he'd never been the gaming type; he was fine with that, since he knew how stereotypes were assigned to video-game loving boys.

Randomly clicking on links, and accidentally clicking on a sketchy-looking one, Shinichi thanked god that he had a good Firewall; that could have very well been a nasty virus that he'd clicked on. Somehow, he found a website for a cafe that he'd never been to which was relatively close to his house. With a push of his feet, he got up and went to examine his backpack. Hm… trig, geology, and biology, but other than that, his backpack was empty. Rather than sit in his room like on all other normal days, he decided he'd try the cafe out. See if their drinks were any good. While he was at it, he figured he'd get a little homework done in a social environment. After all, it was pretty typical for a high-schooler to work on his/her homework in a cafe, restaurant, or somewhere public, as they usually wanted a change of pace from their typical desk in their rooms.

Shinichi entered the address of the place into his smartphone and began to walk out of the door. His mother, who was preparing dinner, called out to him.

"Izumi-kun, where are you going? Dinner will be ready in an hour or two," she said while looking up at him, concern in her eyes. She looked at his backpack and, as a mother would, worried that he was running away.

Shinichi chuckled. "It's okay, kah-san. I'm just going to a cafe to work on my homework. Is that all right?"

His mother looked very relieved. "Oh, yes, dear. That's perfectly fine," she stated as she turned back towards the chicken she was preparing. "Just be home before dark. You know I don't like you wandering around at night, especially with the… outbreak of weird creatures inhabiting humans lately."

"Don't worry, mom, I'll be back before then."

"OK. Be safe, dear."

Izumi nodded and turned to walk out the door. As he walked, he couldn't help but admire the simplicity of where he lived. If anything were to happen to him, he'd surely go crazy.

Within a few minutes, Shinichi was at the door of the cafe. It was dimly lit and small in the whole swing of things, but he thought it felt comfortable. The window was just a little dirtier than a normal cafe's would have been, and the door creaked a little too loudly when he opened it. However, his thoughts changed immediately when he walked through the door and saw a familiar patch of short, brown hair sitting in front of him, hunched over a book and scribbling furiously on a piece of paper.

"Murano? W-what's she doing here?"

As if on cue, like this was an anime, she turned and greeted him with a small smile. "Hi, Izumi."

"H-hello, Murano. How are you doing?" he asked, adjusting his glasses while trying to remain nonchalant. It failed.

"I'm all right… but I'm having so much trouble with trig this year. See?" she said, holding up a piece of paper with a hole in it. "I've had to erase so much, I've put a hole through the darn thing! Now I have to start over…" she muttered, glaring at the cursed tree-in-paper form. She sighed and motioned for him to sit down.

"You're smart, Izumi. Can you help me with this problem?" she asked, pointing to a rather complicated problem involving lots of degrees, angles, and vectors.

"Oh, that. Sure," he said softly, removing his glasses so he could see the paper better.

As he explained, he quickly found himself longing for a drink of something, making him abruptly stand up. "I- I'm kind of thirsty, so do you want anything? I'll buy."

"Mm? Oh! Izumi, that'd be great! Can I just have a coffee with lots of cream?" she replied, smiling at him with appreciation in her eyes.

Izumi couldn't believe it. He was buying a beverage for the girl he liked! If he wasn't in a social setting, he'd surely faint from happiness! He purchased the coffee with extra cream and a mango-pineapple smoothie for himself and sat down by Murano once again.

"You know, this is pretty nice, this place, you helping me, and all. Can we meet here tomorrow? I've looked at tomorrow's lesson and I really don't think I can do it on my own," she stated sadly, pointing to the next lesson in her book.

"Um, sure!" Izumi replied hurriedly. He didn't want to miss a chance to spend time with Murano, but he also didn't know how well he'd hold up socially. He sighed mentally. Maybe this was what he needed to break out of his shell. Maybe this could make him more social to everyone.

Maybe it could hurt him. But with Murano, that was a chance he was more than willing to take right away.

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AN: So, I hope you liked it. This, in itself, down to its core, is a series of oneshots that follow the storyline of MuranoxIzumi. So please, leave me review, follow, favorite, and leave ideas for what you want me to do with the two pre-lovebirds! Thanks in advance!

The Slain Executioner, slashing out.