Chapter 18: Family

Hi everybody! The name of Persona and Nobara's daughter in this story, Yuki, is purely from my own imagination. A lot of the former Dangerous Ability class members are manga-only characters. I think they're very interesting people. :)

mikan26, a million thanks for your devotion to this story!

Trying your best is not easy.
Featuring a house and a hope.

Gakuen Alice and its characters are the wonderful creations of Tachibana Higuchi.

In a tidy house that was known only to a very few individuals, Rui Amane frowned. It was a little after midnight and Nobara Ibaragi was still awake.

Rui was really disappointed in himself. This was not what was supposed to happen under his watch.

"I just go to the bathroom for a minute and when I return, you're already in the doorway of Yuki's room. You should be resting, Nobara. I mean it," said Rui softly.

"Sorry," said Nobara in an equally soft voice. "Please don't mind me, Rui. I'm just happy to watch my little angel smile while she's sleeping. I don't feel tired at all when I see Yuki like this. She looks so at peace. It warms my heart."

Nobara smiled and inched closer to her daughter, taking care not to make any loud sounds. Rui followed her and crossed his arms.

"Persona's going to punish me if he finds out you haven't been sleeping enough."

Rui realized how ironic that statement sounded. He had the Curse Alice and had the power to punish those he marked. At least Nobara didn't tease him about it. He was grateful for that.

"I'll tell Rei that you did everything in your power to let me rest. By the way, Rui, you still can't call him Rei? It's been a while."

Rui could hear the unmistakable sadness in her voice. He ruffled her hair affectionately.

"You, silly, silly girl. It's probably for the best that only you call him Rei. I don't think he'll like it if the rest of us does it. It's something special between the two of you."

Nobara blushed and paused for a while.

"I...I think that… I think that I'll go to sleep now, Rui. Thank you for helping me out once again. I'll make it up to you soon, I promise. Thank you so much."

"Don't mention it, Nobara. I'm well-suited for this. Yuki adores me, " Rui said while smiling.

Nobara gave him a tight hug and left with a yawn.

Rui carefully adjusted Yuki's blanket. They still didn't know if Yuki had an alice. Or alices, for that matter. It would nearly be impossible if she didn't inherit at least one of the powerful alices of her parents.

Rui didn't really believe in a higher power. If there was one, he didn't know if someone like him was qualified to offer prayers. He still dared to start and end his days by praying that Yuki won't have Persona's Corrosion Alice. He also prayed that Yuki won't have the fourth type of alice — the terrible type that wastes one's life away.

Hajime Yakumo, who wielded the Insect Pheromone Alice, once caught him praying and said that Rui was finally going crazy.

"Do us all a favor and stop wasting your time, Rui. You're smarter than that."

Rui knew Hajime was speaking the truth but he wanted to try. He had to try.

Who knows? There might be a miracle. When Hayate Matsudaira learned about it, he swore by his Wind Alice to pray like Rui.

A miracle. Rui rolled his eyes. He smiled sadly.

Rui had learned to believe in miracles since Mikan Sakura came into their lives. She changed everything. He would like to meet her again — the girl who was special not because of her three remarkable alices, but for the consistent goodness of her heart whatever happened around her.

Mikan won over three of the most difficult people Rui had in his circle. Persona, Youichi and Natsume had changed for the greater good and the academy did too.

Rui missed Youichi. He even missed Natsume too, but he was never going to admit it, even to Nobara. Never ever. Even in this moment he could imagine Natsume smirking. It was almost as irritating as imagining Hayate's antics. He felt his irritation turning into fondness as he remembered Youichi and Natsume's special bond.

For Rui, the Dangerous Ability class was, no, still is, he corrected himself, a family in their own unique way. They had gone through so much at so young an age.

They would all be reunited in the future, when things were a lot better. Rui believed that with every fiber of his being.

In the meantime, he would do what he could. He would guard Nobara and Yuki across various safe houses while Persona, Hajime and Hayate all did their work against Genesis. They were all trying their best, especially Nobara. Rui knew that she was always worrying about her husband.

Rui sat down and patted the armchair. He hoped they would stay in this place for a while. It had a small but lovely flower garden. Hajime had dropped by earlier. Rui secretly watched him as he called forth some butterflies. Hajime closed his eyes and enjoyed the serenity of the place.

That had never happened before. Hajime merely used insects as offensive weapons. He had never summoned butterflies before. Hayate's jaws would have dropped to the ground.

The air was fresh. It was a pleasant hideout, but it was still a hideout. They had been discovered before. It wasn't an experience Rui wanted to undergo again.

"My goodness, what is wrong with me and my sentiments?"

Yuki stirred a little bit. Rui held his breath. Yuki settled back into a peaceful sleep once again. Rui promptly discarded all his melodramatic and carefree thoughts and kept alert.

Back in Alice academy, Mikan was dreaming about successfully baking a gigantic strawberry cake using a secret recipe from Anna. Just as Mikan was just about to invite Natsume to have at least one slice, the scenery of her dream changed.

The scenery turned blurry before morphing into a moment when she encountered Nobara. That was one of Mikan's memorable memories in the academy. It involved making cakes too, for the academy's Christmas celebration. It felt like it happened several lifetimes ago.

Mikan hugged her pillow and smiled serenely as she slept. She really missed Nobara. Nobara was dreaming of the same thing too. They both woke up hours later feeling very good. They also felt hopeful about meeting each other again one day.

It was a good and precious thing, to have a hope like that, especially in challenging times.

End of Eighteenth Chapter

After a lot of thinking, I decided to go with short but sweet (or bittersweet) for this update. Rest assured that longer ones are coming up. Thank you for reading! :)