Chapter Text
The dorms had seemed like a good idea at the time; the students would be able learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses, plus they’d be able to share information and discuss ideas much easier than they would in separate houses. Emphasis on the word seemed. Turns out that a group of teens with a mission to save the world were still, well, teens. They probably should’ve seen this coming.
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Kirara would always be the first to admit that she hadn’t exactly been enthusiastic about the idea of a dorm system, sure the idea of getting away from her mother for a while had been appealing but living with her classmates? Nothing against them but she liked having quiet time by herself, something which was proving to be difficult to find. Another thud came from somewhere above her, followed swiftly by a brief series of yells.
“Forget it.” She sighed, marking the page in her book before getting up with the intention of heading to a different spot, preferably far away from the dorm building. At least, that’s what she was going to do; a note lying on the ground next to her door changed that plan.
“I swear if this is one of Okajima’s jokes again.” Luckily for the aforementioned classmate the handwriting was much too neat to be his, there was only a single word on the page ‘rooftop’ but that was all she needed. She grabbed her jacket on the way out, hesitating for only a moment before deciding that her classmates had enough self-preservation instincts – barely – to know that messing with her things wouldn’t end well for them.
The hallways were surprisingly empty though it was definitely louder out here than it had been in her room, probably because Mr. K had been perceptive enough to have soundproofing put around her room which made him better than the vast majority of the other adults in her life – kind of sad, but true none the less – it didn’t do much because apparently there wasn’t soundproofing good enough to handle E class’ brand of chaos.
Pushing open the door to the roof led her to a sight she hadn’t entirely been expecting. Sure the mismatched furniture wasn’t entirely surprising, someone was bound to set up some kind of hang out spot up here eventually – though why she hadn’t thought of it sooner she didn’t know – no, the part that was surprising was the group already sitting there.
Chiba and Hayami were sitting on one of the ledges, a normal person would probably find that unnerving, not her though – sitting there just gave their sniper images a nice boost – they knew what they were doing. She nodded a brief greeting when they spotted her, the two of them returning to whatever it was they were talking about while she headed to the table Kataoka was currently using.
“Too much noise?” Their female class rep asked, smiling in sympathy when Kirara merely rolled her eyes. She opened her book to where she left off while Kataoka returned to what she guessed was homework.
“So is this some new club I’ve only just learned about?” She asked as she turned the page, the other girl exhaling a short laugh before crossing something out.
“Something like that.” Kirara merely nodded in acknowledgement, she had to admit it was nice up here and made a mental note to read on the roof more often.
“So is there anyone else in this little club or is it just us?” Not that she was complaining, she preferred smaller groups, but she couldn’t deny that part of her was curious. Kataoka hummed in thought, glancing at the time on her phone before raising her head to face the door.
“Just one, he should be turning up any time now.” Kirara found herself watching the door, mentally running through a list of her classmates’ names in an attempt to figure out who it was. She had her answer a few moments later when a familiar head of blue hair poked outside.
“Hey Nagisa.” Kataoka greeted, the boy smiling tiredly in response before claiming one of the other seats at the table. Kirara was kind of surprised to see him, Nagisa wasn’t exactly the loudest person in their class – far from it – but considering he typically hung out with the likes of Karma…okay she saw why he was here now.
“I brought snacks.” The dark haired girl made a mental note to curse the next person who hurt him, nodding in thanks as she accepted one of the pastries. The snipers headed over briefly, muttering their own thanks before returning to their perch.
“What did he do this time?” She didn’t bother saying a name; they all knew who she was talking about. Nagisa merely groaned in defeat, slumping forward against the table; she watched – with mild amusement – as Kataoka reached over to pat his back, as though that would be enough compensation for whatever bout of insanity their resident sadist dragged him into.
They stayed up there for a while, packing up only when they realised the others were likely close to launching a search party.
“So, just to be clear, we’re not telling the others about this right?” The answering ‘hell no’s signifying the beginning of what Kirara believed to be an interesting development.
She was still sending a noise complaint to Mr. K though.
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Nagisa would be lying if he said he hadn’t been excited when he’d heard about the dorms; being able to hang out with his friends – being able to do anything really – without having to brace himself before asking was a pleasant change of pace.
“Hey Dadisa, your kid’s here.” If there was one thing he could do without, it was the constant teasing over his relationship with Sakura – seriously, if he found adoption papers on his desk one more time – but that was only a minor problem.
“Coming!” He called over, pausing the Sonic Ninja movie he had been watching – yes he probably knows it off by heart at this point, no he doesn’t have a problem – Sakura perked up when he rounded the corner, something which would likely fuel more teasing later.
“So what are we working on today?” He asked as they claimed one end of the table in the kitchen – which was thankfully empty. She merely pulled a few worksheets out of her bag, writing scrawled over all of them.
“I finished these ones.” She stated, handing him three of the pages. He didn’t need any further prompting before he started going over them, this part of their routine never changed.
“What about those?” He asked, tilting his pen to point at the worksheets she was still working on.
“I know what I’m doing with this one.” She replied, holding up the page she was currently working through. “But I need some help with the other one.” Sounded simple enough, he hummed in acknowledgement. They worked in silence for the most part, taking much less time to finish the worksheets than when they first started.
“Thanks Nagisa.” The pink haired girl sighed in relief; he merely smiled in reply, pocketing his pen while she packed her things away.
“Do you want some ice cream?” He offered, chuckling softly when she cheered.
They spent the rest of the session talking about random topics, stopping only when one of his classmates informed them that her parents had arrived. He barely had time to shut the door before a familiar teasing tone called out to him.
“So are you sure you don’t want the adoption papers?” The dent in the door lasted for around five weeks, how he didn’t have a concussion by now was a mystery for another day.