Yay, crack ships.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru walked into the school library, hefting a large pile of textbooks. His designated free period of the day had just begun, and most of his peers who shared this timeslot were nowhere to be found, probably off doing something against the school rules.

He would have loved to have chased every one of the delinquents down - and had done so before - but even Ishimaru couldn't devote all of his time to forcing others to study if he wanted to stay on top of his workload.

He looked around, seeing that the place was mostly deserted. Good. Even if it meant other students were off doing frivolous things and having fun, he could deal with that if it meant some peace and quiet.

Setting his books down on the closest vacant table, he was about to sit down but froze when he heard a strange noise.

It was difficult to discern what it was even in the quiet of the library, but Ishimaru guessed it was coming from a gaming machine of some kind. Highly inappropriate for a school environment.

Whatever it was, he was not about to let it ruin his study time. Picking up his stack of textbooks again, he set off to investigate the source of the noise.

By his calculations, it took approximately 20 seconds to locate the source of the noise. Hidden away behind a bookshelf a girl was crouched on the ground, intently focused on the handheld game in her hands.

It was as he suspected - someone had been playing a game! By now Ishimaru knew such things were highly disruptive to effective study, so he resolved to remove the disturbance as quickly as possible so he could begin studying. Forcibly, if he had to.

However, he was in a library. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

Loudly, he cleared his throat to get the attention of the girl. Immediately, she paused her game and looked up at him with a vacant smile. "Oh… Hello, Ishimaru-san…"

He immediately recognised her face, feeling a little stupid for not realising who it was earlier - Chiaki Nanami, a girl from the year below him.

Ishimaru sighed. This was not the first time he had found her hidden away in a corner of the library gaming, and he sincerely doubted this time would be the last.

"Nanami-san, how many times must I remind you? Games are forbidden in the library." If it were any other student, Ishimaru would have confiscated the accursed thing long ago, however since her grades were above average he let it slide.

That's what he told himself, anyway - if he was totally honest with himself, it was because he had a crush on her. If he looked past her insistence on breaking the school rules, she was otherwise easy to get along with… and cute.

Of course, he would never admit that to anyone - romance could wait until after he graduated.

"But, I have nothing else to do…" She said, her smile faltering. "Could you let me off just this once?"

Staring back into her pink eyes Ishimaru seriously considered the prospect, but he stood his ground. "I cannot do that." He replied, shaking his head. "This is a study period… How will you be able to learn while playing games?"

"I am learning! Games have educational value." Nanami corrected him matter-of-factly. "It's why I play them, you know."

What? Ishimaru's eyes widened in shock. How had he not known about this!

"I-Is that true…" If Nanami was telling the truth, then there was a whole new avenue of learning that he was missing out on. "Please elaborate, Nanami-san!"

"Well, let's see…" She began, counting each point on her fingers. "They can help develop hand-eye co-ordination, reaction time, split-second decision making skills… There's a whole load of benefits, Ishimaru-san. I'm surprised you didn't know."

"A-Amazing! I was not aware gaming was such a worthy pastime!" He could feel himself begin to sweat nervously. Had he been wrong stopping her from playing her games this whole time? "Tell me… Which of those skills is your current game developing?"

"None of them!" She exclaimed, holding out her game for him to inspect. "See? It's a game about raising virtual dogs."

"I-Is that so…" Ishimaru sighed again. If that was the case, then why did she even bother making the argument in the first place? "I'm sorry, but if it is not aiding your education, I cannot allow it."

"…" Nanami relented, shutting off the console and stuffing it inside her backpack. "Hmm… What should I do now…?" She wondered with a small yawn.

Did she even need to ask? "Study!" He exclaimed. "What else is there to do in a study period?"

"I can't… all my books are in my locker."

Ishimaru frowned in thought. Sending her out to retrieve her textbooks would be against school rules about walking through the corridors, but he couldn't just let her sit there...

Suddenly, an idea came to him. "Ah! Why don't you study with me, Nanami-san…!"

She tilted her head inquisitively. "Aren't we in different years…? We'd be taking different subjects."

"That is not a problem. Subjects such as math are shared across year levels!"

"I guess that's true… But the stuff you're doing will be more difficult than our current work." She said thoughtfully. "You'll have to help me out."

"I would not have offered if I was not willing to tutor you. Let's begin!" He turned to head back to a nearby table, but Nanami stopped him.

"Where are you going, Ishimaru-san?" She patted the empty space on the floor next to her. Caught off guard he obeyed, awkwardly sitting down next to her and setting down his large stack of books in front of him.

"That's a big pile. Were you carrying all of your books…?" Nanami shuffled closer, leaning into his arm as she peered curiously at his textbooks.

Ishimaru swallowed nervously, feeling his face begin to heat up. He hadn't expected her to move so close. "O-of course. I cannot neglect any of my subjects."

Trying to distract himself from the fact she was leaning against him, he turned his attention to the books in front of him and prayed Nanami didn't notice the blush on his face. "What would you like to study, Nanami-san?" He queried, doing his best to sounds professional.

"Hmm… I think you should choose, Ishimaru-san." She replied, after a moment of thought. "You're the one who suggested this, so I'll just study whatever you do."

"A-alright… We shall study maths, then." He announced, pulling out his maths book and opening it up.

Carefully leafing through the textbook to find the relevant page number, he turned his head in surprise when a weight suddenly bore down on his shoulder.

"Nanami-san…?" He asked curiously, but received no response - she was unconscious, now completely leaning against him. Alarmed, he checked her breathing and pulse, but nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

He sighed in relief. It seemed she was just asleep. Good news, but now he had to decide what to do with the sleeping gamer.

Deep in thought, he cast a lingering glance at her face. She looked so peaceful… however, sleeping in the library is against the rules. If she was not getting adequate sleep, during school hours was not the place to catch up on it.

Ishimaru moved to wake her up, but reconsidered after a moment. She had made him uncharacteristically nervous, sitting so close… there was no way he would be able to study effectively while blushing and stuttering like a fool.

What should I do…? He continued to debate his options, all the while excruciatingly aware that his precious study time was steadily ticking away. Eventually, he made his decision.

He reached for a pencil, taking care not to disturb Nanami. He would have to make an exception, just this once.

Nanami is probably out of character here because I have yet to read SDR2… so sorry about that. I hope you enjoyed this anyway!