Request: Nyo!PrUK - in some AU other than canon, please, and AmeBel in any AU. 3

The university library was a calm, quiet place, filled with the soft, low drone of flipping pages, scribbling pens and pencils against paper, and students murmuring back and forth. The afternoon sunlight trickled in through half-drawn windows, casting long shadows and illuminating floating specks of dust.

There was the loud and sudden scraping noise of a chair being pushed back, the rustle of somebody standing up, and hands slamming onto a table.

"You take that back."

Julchen blinked up across the table at Alice, running her eyes over the blonde's stern yet calm expression. But calm only as of now, for Julchen knew it could only take a split second for that face to turn livid, and should that point be reached, it would be in the best interests of everybody to evacuate the library. But the German girl had never bothered herself to be concerned with what was in the best interests of total strangers, and besides, provoking Alice was simply too irresistible.

"Sit down first, then I'll think about taking it back," she cooed, quirking an eyebrow expectantly as she waited for Alice to take her seat. With a flair of her nostrils and a huff, she eventually did so, but not without crossing her arms and regarding Julchen as something she had found under her shoe.

"Take it back," Alice repeated, this time with a slightly narrowed gaze and a testy tone. This did nothing but elicit an amused chuckle from her, a shadow of her signature wicked grin working itself onto her lips.

"Mein Gott, you'd think I just said something nasty about your mother, or accused you of having crabs," Julchen cackled softly, leaning back in her chair. "All I did was share my opinion that-"

"William Shakespeare was a genius beyond his time and perhaps the most precise, clever, and smooth master of the English language," Alice interrupted with a scowl. "And if you refuse to appreciate his words or at least accept the fact that he is so much more than some 'dirty little poet', you can talk to the professor about changing partners."

Both brows raised in vague surprise over Alice's words, Julchen took a moment to study her curiously. After a moment, she smiled faintly.

"I take it you'd be up to the challenge of enlightening me to his profound genius and converting me to a believer than?"

"If you think you can handle it," Alice retorted, still eyeing the other girl crossly. At that, Julchen grinned widely.

"Challenge accepted. This Sunday, twelve o'clock, the café across from the music store. That work for you?"

Alice gave a short nod.

"Then it's a date

"Oh, come on, Natalya! You're such a mood kill!"

Natalya didn't bother gracing that remark with a scowl, she instead eyed her friend-who-happened-to-be-a-boy-but-wasn't-her-'boyfriend' sternly. "Then so be it, I'm a mood kill. I'm not going to that party."

Giving a loud and exasperated groan, Alfred let his shoulders slump, pouting like a toddler. "You never want to hang out with other people. And you know what? You say that you don't like being social because you know other people don't like you, but that's because you don't let them get to know you!"

Now, Natalya most definitely did not find Alfred's pout cute. Nor did she find the sentiment that he believed she was somebody other people could come to like touching. She didn't give him a response, she simply raised her chin and looked away, not wanting to discuss her reason for this occasion.

It wasn't often that Alfred could get frustrated, and it had to be something pretty serious. But he had just about had it with her refusal to let people see what a clever, funny, and caring person she could really be. "Give me one reason," he demanded. "One, valid reason why you can't have fun at that party and dance all night long and lose some inhibitions and chill out and enjoy yourself."

Sighing, Natalya decided to come out and say it. So she looked him in the eye, and completely dead-pan, said, "I'm bleeding from my vagina. And I'm out of Midol."

Alfred's gaze when completely blank, and for a moment, she wondered if she had broken him, caused something in his brain to short-circuit. But then he sighed and rubbed a hand over his face, smiling a bit.

"I'll be over at seven with chocolate. What movie am I bringing?"

And Natalya most definitely did not smile.