[Various] Highschool AU snippets
So about a year and a half ago, I did a fic-meme on my main LJ with the theme of highschool AUs, and I never got around to posting them here. Some of them may later get expanded, by which I mean there is currently a Tales of the Abyss highschool AU WiP sitting on my harddrive, but these all stand on their own.
Fandom: Tales of the Abyss
Pairings: Jade/Saphir
"Jaaaade," Saphir yells down the hallway in a besotted voice, heedless of all the weird looks and whispered comments and giggles. Jade rolls his eyes and doesn't slow down, let alone stop; Saphir will catch up eventually either way, and it amuses him in a perverse way to see the smaller boy red in the face and gasping for breath when he finally grabs at Jade's sleeve.
"You should get out of the lab more, Saphir," he says, smirking slightly. "If it's that hard for you to run a few metres."
It's a slightly cruel comment, and more than a little unfair, considering Saphir is asthmatic. It slides off Saphir like water off a duck's back, though, just like always.
"Jade, you said you'd wait for me after school today!" Saphir whined, when he got his voice back. Jade raises his eyebrows behind his fringe in feigned astonishment.
"Did I? How odd, I don't recall that at all," he said, with fake sweetness. "Are you sure you didn't imagine it? I've got plans with Peony this afternoon, you know."
Saphir's face crumpled, completely unselfconscious about the fact that there were still lots of people milling around the hallway. "Jaaaade!"
"Your nose is running again, Saphir," he said, and sat back for the ensuing tantrum-- It is not, I do not, take it back!-- amused rather than embarrassed by the stares they're getting.
Of course he didn't really have plans, and of course Saphir followed him home like a lost puppy when he did leave, but that had never been the point; playing with Saphir was just fun.
Fandom: Tales of the Abyss
Pairings: Guy/Luke pre-slash, Asch/emotional retardation (reference to Asch/Natalia)
Guy was very, very conscious of Asch's glare drilling into his back.
"Guy!" Luke exclaimed, smile lighting up his entire face. "You came!"
"Of course," Guy said, grinning back and ruffling Luke's hair. Asch's glare intensified. "I said I would, didn't I? Can't let you fail maths, after all."
"I could tutor him," Asch growled. "Even if he is retarded."
Luke blinked, totally missing the way Asch was obviously envisioning Guy's painful evisceration in loving detail. "Eh? But you said you were too busy..."
Asch snorted, crossing his arms sullenly but not contradicting Luke. He had this bad way of shooting himself in the foot like that, Guy thought, both with his brother and with Natalia; if he learned to be honest with his feelings he'd get a lot further.
"Anyway, let's go to my room, Guy! That way we won't be disturbed," Luke continued, and Asch's teeth made an almost audible grinding noise. Guy smirked at him when Luke's back was turned, risking immediate strangulation... but it'd be a lot easier to indulge in petty amusement at Asch's frustration if it actually had any basis in reality and Luke wasn't thick like a pile of bricks.
God dammit.
Fandom: Kamen Rider Kabuto
Pairings: Kagami/Tendou pre-slash
The thing is: Tendou is the loner type, and he's also kind of an OCD bitchy perfectionist, which is why a lot of people admire him but he doesn't actually have any friends, per se.
Except for Kagami, that is, and even Kagami is not really sure how he ended up in that category except it apparently means he has to carry Tendou's books and give Tendou rides home on his bicycle. He doesn't really mind, though, especially not when Tendou cooks for him sometimes.
Actually, when Kagami thinks about it, Tendou's kind of a lot more like his girlfriend than his friend-friend.
And when Tendou smiles at him like that with the sun in his eyes and Kagami's heart kind of maybe skips a beat, well. Kagami doesn't really mind that either, come to think of it.
Fandom: Phoenix Wright
Pairings: Edgeworth/Phoenix pre-slash
"Wright," Miles said irritably, "If you're going to come over here for a study session, the least you could do is actually study."
"Mmmm," Phoenix mumbled, and then, when Miles nudged him sharply in the side of his ribs with his shoe, "Waaargh! I'm sorry, Mrs. Kraft, I swear I wasn't sleeping!"
"You're a horrible liar," Miles informed him, scowling. "Think yourself lucky we're not in class and I'm not going to make you write lines."
Phoenix's body went limp with relief and he gave Miles a lopsided grin that was absolutely not endearing. "Phew, safe," he said, stretching on the carpet of Miles' living room. "Hey, you wanna catch a movie this afternoon? There's that new Steel Samurai special you wanted to watch..."
"Might I remind you we're supposed to be studying so that you don't fail your chemistry mid-term on Friday?" Miles said sourly, but he didn't really try to shake off Phoenix's arm slung around his shoulders and it didn't change the pleasant twist in his stomach whenever Phoenix laughed like that and invaded his closely guarded personal space.
Not endearing at all, he told himself firmly, knowing that there was no judge in the world who'd believe him.
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairings: John/Rodney pre-slash
"You shouldn't even be at this table," Rodney complained. "You should be at the jock table backslapping and communicating in grunts, not-- did you just steal one of my fries?!"
"Yep," John said lackadaisically, dragging the ill-gotten chip through the sauce on Rodney's plate as Rodney stared at him in open-mouthed apoplectic speechlessness. "You were saying?"
"You're not, you don't," Rodney started, waving his hands around frantically to try and illustrate the grave wrongness of the situation, then demanded, "why are you here? I'm a nerd! You're on the football team! You're hot, you should be, I don't know, making out with cheerleaders or something instead of defying the natural order!"
"I'm hot, huh?" John said slyly, picking up on the most unfortunate part of that rant just like he always seemed to do. Rodney was ready to do some serious backpedaling and was just getting his defence in order-- objectively, objectively hot, don't punch me!-- when John added casually, "By the way, did I ever tell you I passed the MENSA test?"
"I didn't mean, I just meant-- what?" Rodney's thoughts hit a brick wall. "You what?"
"MENSA," John repeated, and shrugged, like it was no big deal. "I passed it. That qualifies me to sit on the geek table, right?"
"Well, no, geeks and nerds are," Rodney began, and then his brain caught up to his mouth and abruptly ceased function. "Nguh."
Hot and smart. Not as smart as Rodney, obviously, but smart, and. And life was just not fair.
"I know, Rodney," John said, raising an eyebrow. "Do I have to show you my comic book collection and miniature Death Star before I'm allowed to join the club, too?"
"But," Rodney said weakly. "That's not fair, you can't just... what?"
John just grinned. "See ya tomorrow, Rodney," he said easily, and backslapped Rodney on his way past in a way that Rodney was pretty sure was intended ironically.
Rodney either loved his life or he hated it, he wasn't sure which. Although, he thought, he could always make a decision after he'd gathered some more empirical data...
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/everything, Jack/Ianto
"I bet the only reason Jack hasn't been expelled yet is because he's seduced all the teachers," Owen said bitterly, and Tosh shrugged.
"Maybe," she allowed. "But he does have a fairly good attendance record, Owen."
"Yeah, but all he does is make out with people in break and flirt with everyone in class!" Owen complained. "It's public indecency, is what it is!"
Nobody commented that Owen was probably just jealous, but they were all thinking it, if Martha's smirk and Gwen's eyeroll were anything to go by.
"Did I miss anything?" Ianto inquired as he set his tray down, and Owen scowled.
"Oh, not... bloody get nicked, all of you tossers," he said, shoving his seat back violently and stomping off muttering something about nancy boys.
"What's Owen's problem?" a new voice drawled, and the girls twisted around in their seats to where Jack was standing exuding smugness and making the uniform look way better than it had any right to.
They looked back to Ianto's mussed and flushed appearance and then again at Jack's cat-in-the-cream smirk.
"Oh, nothing much," Martha said, innocent tone belied by her knowingly raised eyebrow. "He's just feeling rather passionate about public morals today."
It took about two seconds for Ianto's face to flood with a shade of red that, as a biology major, Martha found quite fascinating.
Ah, the wonders of the human organism.
Fandom: Odin Sphere
Pairings: Ingway/Mercedes-ish
"Your brother is kind of weird," Mercedes informed Velvet. "He keeps following me. And quoting Shakespeare. It's kind of creepy."
"He's majoring in drama," Velvet said, slightly helpless in the face of this tiny indignant cheerleader who was usually her archrival. She couldn't really deny that Ingway was kind of weird sometimes, though, no matter how much she loved him. "Why are you telling me this?"
Mercedes crossed her arms. "Can't you make him stop?" she demanded. "Or at least stop saying things about true love's first kiss?"
If Velvet could make Ingway do anything-- like, say, stop tormenting Cornelius and playing dumb pranks on him in misguided crazy overprotective brotherliness-- then her life would be a lot easier.
"No," she said eventually. "Have you thought about just saying yes? He'll probably get bored and leave you alone if you do."
Mercedes looked almost stricken for a moment, which was enough to make Velvet wonder what exactly was going on here, but then she stamped her foot and said, "Ugh, as if I'd kiss that drama freak!" and stalked off.
And that, Velvet thought, was why she hated cheerleaders.
Fandom: Dragon Quest V
Pairings: References to Hero/Deborah, Hero/Bianca, and Hero/Flora (Hero = Ryou)
"Can't believe you finally moved back," Henry says idly, linking his arms behind his head and staring up at the sky. "Remember how I tried to pay you to do my homework and you smacked me? You were the first guy to ever say no. Man, I was such a little shit back then."
Ryou smiles slightly, but doesn't argue. Even if Henry's his best friend, it is kind of true; he'd been a spoilt nightmare back in primary school.
"Who'd've thought you'd be so built when you grew up? You were such a shrimp when we were kids," Henry adds, turning his head to give Ryou a critically appraising look. "No wonder you've got girls all over you. What's going on with that, anyway? Bianca said Flora asked you out, but Maria said she saw you outside the school grounds with Deborah yesterday. It's like they're genetically inclined to you or something. Not that they'd need to be, I guess."
Ryou shrugs, and Henry snorts.
"Fine, be that way, Mr. Strong and Silent," he mutters. "But seriously, Deborah? She's nicknamed the man-eater for a reason, you know."
Ryou shrugs again, but this time his grin is slightly sheepish and Henry rolls his eyes.
"Masochist," he says, and grins back fondly.
Fandom: Hanakimi
Pairings: Akiha/Umeda
"Sempa~i," Akiha carolled, and Umeda twitched.
He should have gone to the library. Not that that would necessarily have stopped his crazy stalker of a kouhai, but at least one of the librarians would have thrown him out sooner or later for being a nuisance.
"What."
"I couldn't find you at lunch! You shouldn't hide from me, sempai, I brought you a present!" Akiha beamed; Umeda scowled.
"I don't want a present," he said irritably, but it didn't stop Akiha from ditching the stupid chocolate heart on the table in front of him as proudly as a cat with a dead mouse. It wasn't even Valentine's Day.
Actually, probably just was well it wasn't, or Umeda might really have had to kill him.
"Do you never go away?" Umeda muttered. "I'm trying to study."
"I can study with you, sempai!" Akiha insisted, and you could almost see the heartmarks punctuating everything he said. He rested his chin in his hands, peering close into Umeda's face, and Umeda snapped, "No you can't, you're only in second year, moron!"
He still ate the chocolate, though, because chocolate was chocolate no matter what the shape or the source and it was good energy for studying. If he didn't struggle as hard as he could have when Akiha stole a taste of the chocolate from his mouth, well, it simply wasn't worth the energy in fighting the octopus-limbed maniac.
But maybe, just maybe, he had come to a private classroom where he knew Akiha would find him instead of the library on purpose-- but he would never admit that, not to himself or even out loud under torture.
Fandom: Final Fantasy IV
Pairing: Hints of Cecil/Kain
"There needs to be an intervention," Rydia announced, bursting into Cecil's dorm room despite the fact that girls weren't even supposed to be in this area. "Rosa agrees."
"... What?" Cecil said weakly, and tried to figure out what he'd done to deserve this, but came up blank.
"Kain is an emo," she told him, hands on her hips. "An emo who listens to depressing music about wanting to die and wears black all the time with long sleeves and writes bad poetry about how his life is bleak and empty. Something has to be done!"
"Poetry?" Cecil echoed stupidly, and Rydia sighed at him.
"So I might have exaggerated the poetry," she said impatiently. "That's not the point. Besides, just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean it's not there. But back to the intervention! You have to do something, Cecil!"
"What?" Cecil said again, feeling distinctly lost. "But you just said you and Rosa..."
"Agree that you need to stage an intervention, yes," Rydia finished for him. "Get with the programme, Cecil. Kain's your best friend, right? And your roommate?"
Well, put like that, she had a point.
"But he said," Cecil started awkwardly. "I mean, about Rosa... if she's the reason, wouldn't it make more sense if she...?"
Rydia stared at him with an expression Cecil had long ago learnt meant 'I am suffering from a headache and it is all your fault'. "Why are boys all so stupid?" she demanded-- rhetorically, Cecil assumed, because she didn't wait for an answer. "Is it all the knocks to the head you take playing silly sports, or is it encoded somewhere into the Y chromosome? Rosa is not the reason Kain's being emo, alright, you are."
Cecil's eyes widened. "But... what did I...?"
"Just talk to him, okay!" Rydia ordered, and slammed the door on her way out. Cecil stared after her, mystified.
He would never, ever understand women.
Fandom: X
Pairings: Tsundere!Fuuma -> Kamui
Kamui had just been walking down the hall, minding his own business, when suddenly his foot snagged on something and he smacked down face-first onto the linoleum floor, books skidding out all over the place. When he pushed himself up, wincing at the shooting pain in his arms, he was totally unsurprised to see Fuuma leaning against the lockers smirking with his foot sticking out.
"Fuuma," he said miserably, gathering his stuff back together as quickly as he could. He and Fuuma had been best friends for years, all throughout their childhood, but then they'd hit highschool and it was suddenly like Fuuma had made it his personal mission to make Kamui's life suck.
"Kamui," Fuuma returned, raising an eyebrow. "Do you need a hand, there?"
"No, thank you, I'm fine," Kamui said, as icily as he could, although it came out rather more defensive and pathetic than he was intending. Still, Fuuma didn't stop him when he managed to get to his feet and hurry off down the corridor, and Kamui was willing to count that as a tentative win.
Tentative because it didn't get him his best friend back, but that was pretty much a pipe dream anyway.
*
"You know," Karen said conversationally from behind him, several moments after Kamui left, "contrary to what seems to be popular belief, girls won't actually go out with you if you pull their pigtails, and I don't think boys will, either."
Fuuma scowled and crossed his arms, but didn't say anything, mostly because there wasn't anything to say to that. Karen sighed.
"I hope you'll figure it out soon," she said. "Preferably before Kamui-kun ends up with something worse than a concussion."
"Whatever," Fuuma muttered, and skulked off down the hallway to avoid being lectured anymore.
Stupid Kamui. It was all his fault for being oblivious.
Fandom: Mirage of Blaze
Pairing: Naoe/Takaya
"Takaya-san," Naoe said, greatly aggrieved when he found Takaya playing with a packet of cigarettes on the roof. "You should be in class."
"You should call me Ougi-kun when we're at school, right, sensei?" Takaya retorted mockingly, and threw and caught the cigarettes. Naoe sighed.
"Takaya-san. Those are mine, aren't they," he said, ignoring Takaya's last comment. "At the risk of hypocrisy, you shouldn't smoke. It's not good for you."
"No, it's not like hypocrisy has ever bothered you before, so why start now," Takaya agreed ironically, and when Naoe's eyes cut sharply to him, "besides, it's not like I'm smoking them anyway. I was just waiting to see how long until you noticed."
Naoe had noticed Takaya was missing way before he'd had a chance to miss the cigarettes, which Takaya had to know, but instead of pointing that out, Naoe sighed again and rubbed at his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"Please go back to class, Kagetora-sama," he said plaintively. "Yuzuru-san will be worried. And Kenshin-sama will be very disappointed if your attendance rate prevents you from passing."
Takaya considered him with dark, appraising eyes and Naoe wondered if this was when their uneasy truce would be shattered. Takaya hadn't said a word about the incident since the night he'd shoved Naoe and run away and they'd both been going on like it never happened, but there was still the faint hint of a purpling bruise in the shadow of his jaw.
"Whatever," Takaya said finally, and tossed the cigarettes back at Naoe, pushing past him to clatter back down the stairs.
Not today, then.
Fandom: Mirage of Blaze (same universe as above snippet)
Pairings: Reference to Naoe/Takaya
Takaya walked into the classroom and stopped abruptly.
"No," he said, with absolute flat finality, and turned to walk right back out.
"Takaya," Yuzuru said, trying to placate him, "you can't just skip maths for the whole semester! It wasn't so bad with Naoe-san, was it?"
Naoe was a completely different problem, one that was so much more complicated than him being Takaya's teacher that it deserved its own unique category. Takaya didn't want to think about that right now, so he put it firmly to one side and said, "Naoe's different. I refuse to have that guy for a teacher."
"What's wrong with Nagahide?" Yuzuru tried, but that was the exact moment that Chiaki smirked and threw a piece of chalk at Takaya's head.
"Stop loitering in the doorway," Chiaki said, with altogether too much relish as Takaya glowered at him balefully. "Don't make me give you a detention for being tardy, Ougi."
Yuzuru laughed weakly and shot Chiaki a look that said there'd be words about this once they were outside the school grounds; Chiaki looked supremely unconcerned. For all that he was part of the Uesugi he'd never been overly burdened by respect for its two heirs.
"Come on, Takaya," Yuzuru coaxed, and Takaya scowled, but stomped into the classroom, not wanting to have to deal with Kenshin's disappointment or worse, Naoe's lectures, if he skipped maths.
Stupid Chiaki. Takaya hoped he got fired.
Fandom: Merlin BBC
Pairings: Merlin -> Arthur
"I don't see why I have to tutor that prat," Merlin complained, viciously shoving his bag into his locker and wishing it was Arthur's stupid head. "He just expects me to do his homework for him and makes stupid snide comments and treats me like his servant! And I can't do anything about it because his father's the principal and Uther would probably expel as soon as look at me! I mean, really, do you think Arthur was born that much of a twat, or do you think he works at it?"
"Merlin," Gwen chided, and Merlin sighed, deflating.
"It's not even like he's stupid," he said pitifully. "He's not, he just doesn't try. And he's sometimes a really nice guy, like when Nimueh was threatening to report me for cheating and he went out of his way to get my drafts and prove it wasn't me. But the moment he's around his football mates, he just transforms into this enormous arse."
Gwen patted him sympathetically on the shoulder.
"It's only for a semester," she said soothingly, but it wasn't that reassuring because he'd met Arthur now and it wasn't like he could just blissfully return to the world of Before Arthur when the semester was up, no matter how much Will might wish it.
There was no justice in the world, Merlin thought pathetically, because if there was, he would never have fallen for Arthur bloody Pendragon.
Fandom: Due South
Pairings: Tiny hints of Ray K->Fraser, maybe? Mostly gen.
Despite the fact that he'd transferred in mid-term and that was generally a recipe for disaster, Ray found he was already fitting in way better than he ever had at his last school, never mind that he'd been going there since about third grade. Then again, that kind of fancy private prep school had always been way out of his league; he'd only gone there in the first place to be closer to Stella, and look how that'd turned out.
But here... well, here was good. Listening to Frannie snap gum was almost as annoying as listening to her talk could be when she was in a particularly ditzy mood, and Ray V and he had this weird tension rivalry thing going on, and the duck brothers could be assholes sometimes-- especially Dewey-- but overall they were his kind of assholes. Plus Welsh could be a bit of a hard-ass sometimes but he was still the best homeroom teacher Ray had ever had; even when he was reaming you out for ditching assembly you could tell he actually cared.
Then, of course, there was Fraser, who had transferred a good year or so before Ray had but still managed to stick out that much more. It wasn't just because he was Canadian, or that he seemed to collect Rays like a magnet, or even that he had this pet wolf that the teachers had long ago given up trying to keep off school grounds. It was just his overall... Fraser-ness.
But as much as sticking out tended to be a terrible idea in highschool, somehow Fraser made it work.
"... and of course, Ray, there are some amazing parallels with shamanism in--"
"Fraser," Ray interrupted firmly, knowing if he didn't, Fraser would probably keep talking for about two hours. "Fraser. Fraze. I do not care about inuits, okay? I just want to know enough to be able to write a paper on totem animals or whatever."
"Well, if you insist, Ray," Fraser said, a little reproachfully. "You could always check the library, you know. Books do exist for a reason."
"Whatever, you know more than the library," Ray said dismissively, but before Fraser could protest about the virtues of libraries, Ray yanked his locker open and was bombarded by an avalanche of squeaky yellow rubber.
"Ray," Fraser said after a moment. "I do believe your locker is filled with rubber ducks."
"No, you think?" Ray said sarcastically, and let his head thud dully into the cool metal of the locker. "DEWEY! I am gonna kick that shit in the head this time, Fraser, I swear to god--"
"Yeah, but you don't have any proof and Welsh would have your sorry ass in detention before you could say boo," another voice said from behind, and Ray turned to glare hatefully at Vecchio, who looked way too amused and not at all intimidated by Ray's totally intimidating look.
"Kick you in the head," Ray muttered, but aside from the smirk, Vecchio ignored him.
"Come on, Benny, time for lunch. Quit dawdling around with Daffy here or we won't get a seat," he said impatiently.
"Oh, I suppose you have a point, Ray. Come along, Ray, you'll feel better after you've eaten."
"Mysterious meat surprise," Vecchio added virtuously. "Your favourite, Stanley."
"Joy," Ray said half-heartedly. "And don't call me Stanley, style-pig."
Vecchio just flipped him off, and Ray had no choice but to trail after them when they started heading for the cafeteria.
Ray took it back; he hated school.
Fandom: Arashi RPF
Pairings: Jun <3 his stupid bandmates
Jun had perfectly colour-coded notes which he wrote in matching gel pens. He kept them together in his favourite pencilcase-- it was purple; he'd got it in Harajuku-- which had all the stationary he needed but nothing more in it, and which he always lined up perfectly against the edge of his desk and the pile of pristine textbooks.
Most people were content to leave it at Jun being a little OCD about his things and let him be, but that was before he'd ended up working on the huge semester-long group project with the four other boys he'd ended up thinking of affectionately as his idiot groupmembers.
The first thing Jun realised was that Nino was not-so-secretly made of evil. This was no mere speculation; Nino delighted in his own evilness, which often seemed to manifest itself in the disordering and theft of Jun's stationary, often for the purpose of drawing on Ohno or Sho (or on one memorable occasion, on Jun himself). Jun had on several occasions flirted with the urge to strangle Nino, but even if he was an evil ferret-faced force of chaos, his pranks were never mean-spirited and Jun had no choice to admit to himself that he would probably regret it if he killed Nino.
It took a little longer for Jun to realise that Ohno was just as evil, in his own my-pace kind of way. Ohno was supposedly group leader but he just seemed to sleep most of the time and vaguely agree to whatever everyone else decided (well, mostly what Jun decided. Jun couldn't help being a bit bossy because he wanted everything perfect, but the others seemed content to let him take charge and offer suggestions so it worked out okay) and let Nino invade his personal space, so Jun had thought he was just generally laid-back-- not lazy, exactly, because he did his share of the work, just very much going with the flow. Except then he'd realised that while this wasn't a front, exactly, it did tend to distract one from the fact that Ohno was in league with Nino and often acted as a decoy when Nino was raiding Jun's stationary.
Sho, on the other hand, would try to defend Jun's things against Nino's machinations, with limited amounts of success. He gave Nino a lecture about why teasing Jun-chan was not nice, except it kind of backfired because then Nino's attention refocussed on him. It was, Jun came to accept, Nino's warped and very special way of showing affection.
And then finally there was Aiba, who created chaos out of Jun's careful structures without even really intending to, both literally and figurative. He was pretty good about the absolute boundaries-- he didn't get too physical in class or chew on Jun's pens after that first time-- but he'd put the wrong colour lid back on the pens without even thinking about it and sometimes doodled diagrams of stick figures doing things that... well, they kind of took some imagination to decipher, but the immediate impression did not tend to be family-rated. It was impossible to stay mad at Aiba, though, because he never defaced anything important and he had this way appealing way of grinning that made Jun feel a little bit like his heart was beating too fast.
All in all, you'd think it was a recipe for disaster, but in a strange way it worked and Jun was determined they'd have the best project in the class.
If his social calendar started to fill up with a different set of colour coded marks that remained long after the project ended, well, who was he to complain?