Disclaimers: Don't own the characters... do own the bad writing. =p
anonymous asked: noerah lab partners AU?
Not overly happy with this one, very OOC to me but hopefully this is okay anon.
Noel didn't like biology class; It was boring, unnecessarily difficult and the labs were hard. Normally he was able to skate through class by working with his best friend, Hope Estheim who was a science prodigy (not that he let him copy his results or anything, in fact Hope always made him do the work even if he had to walk him through it like he was stupid and that was only a lot embarrassing due to the fact that Hope was younger and a bit short-tempered) but the boy genius was conveniently absent today and there weren't any other partners available for Noel to work with.
"Did you find a result yet?" Serah was the teacher's assistant and a senior, making her only a few years older than Noel. She was nice but not in that way that seemed insincere or anything, she was genuinely a kind-hearted optimistic person and that, that was why Noel had taken to watching her from afar. Not that he was stalking her or anything but it definitely made class and lunchtime (not stalking, he just happened to have a good view of where she ate from where he was) a lot brighter when he saw her.
"Um, no, don't think so." He stuttered, feeling stupid for his lack of control over speech. He wasn't normally like this but with her so close and talking to him it was hard not to feel caught off guard.
"Really? Let me see." Serah took the seat normally occupied by Hope and slid closely to Noel, leaning over him so close she might as well have just sat on his lap in order to view the slide through the microscope. He had to mentally make sure he didn't reach out and do something idiotic while she was pressed against him.
"Looks like you got a dud sample. There's no way you could pull data from this, I'll just ask the teacher for another slide and then help you out."
"Um, excuse me?" She's been speaking so quickly and was still so near that he nearly missed everything she was saying.
"Well, with Hope out for the day and everyone else already paired up I thought you wouldn't mind having a fill in lab partner. I know you don't always have an easy time with these things." Great, now she thought he was stupid too, dammit; he was about ready to bury his head in his hands when she got up and went to the teacher to do the switch out. "You okay?"
"Yeah… yeah, I'm fine." She was back and already getting started, still sitting incredibly close to him. They worked through the lab in record time, Noel focusing himself to keep his head on his studies instead of the very pretty pink haired girl beside him. She was good at helping him out too and had patience when he seemed caught up on what was needed to get everything done.
"So, doing anything for lunch?" The question was out of his mouth before he could stop himself and Serah looked genuinely surprised. "Sorry, I know you've got a boyfriend-"
"We broke up." She was leaning in again. Did she know what she was doing? "I'd be happy to go to lunch with you Noel and maybe help you with any other studies you're having troubles with."
"Why?"
"Isn't that what partners are for?"