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Kise pounds his hands his hands to the desk and shrieks, “What do you mean I’m failing my classes??” He digs into the eyes of his teacher with his shrunken pupils who had just denounced his grades.
“You’re failing Japanese,” his teacher says, holding up his report card.
“How can I be failing the very language I use to speak every day??” Kise whines.
“That’s for you to figure out,” the teacher says, neatly placing the report on the pile of paper next to her, “but if your grades don’t improve soon, you will need to take remedial classes.”
Kise knows well enough what remedial classes meant for him.
“Is there anything I can do?” he pleads. He’s missing basketball practice at the moment and he wants to escape to his safe place as quickly as he could.
The teacher taps her pen on her chin. “I could assign you a tutor,” she suggests.
The boy does a triple flip inside. “That would be really helpful! Thank you!” He dashes across the classroom to grab his bag and makes his way to the gym for practice; he doesn't want to waste anymore time.
“Wait-” his teacher calls out, but Kise has already escaped.
*
The blonde throws his gym clothes on and heads for the big gym, where the first string’s practicing.
“You’re late,” Midorima comments, irritated. He sees Kise coming from the corner of his eye but does not turn to him.
“I had to talk to my teacher,” Kise answers as he throws the ball from the gymnasium entrance, and it lands in the hoop with a satisfying swish. “I’m failing one of my classes.”
“How disappointing. Your name should not be on the Teiko team,” Midorima spits, “It's disgraceful.”
“So mean, Midorima-cchi,” Kise cries, “at least I’m not as bad as Aomine-cchi.”
“You ought to be. What are you going to do about remedial classes?” He adjusts his glasses with a finger. “You’re going to miss vital games.”
“I’m getting a tutor!” Kise exclaims, retrieving his ball.
“Who?”
“What?”
“Who is it,” the green boy repeats, sinking a basket.
“Oh.” Kise realizes that he didn’t ask for a specific person nor did the teacher tell him before he rushed out of the classroom.
“I guess I’ll have to see,” he answers with a spin of the ball on his finger.
*
The next day, the teacher approaches Kuroko at the end of class.
“Kuroko-kun?”
Kuroko perks up, and shifts in the large crowd that's hurrying to their next class. He's able to disassemble and faces his teacher.
“I have a student that needs tutoring to help raise his grades, and I’m wondering if you are available at lunch-”
“I can do it,” Kuroko immediately agrees. He was planning to shoot some hoops at lunch, but he couldn't deny a request from his teacher.
“I’m glad,” she smiles. “I told him to meet you in this room. Thank you for your help.”
Kuroko leaves for his next class, wondering who the student could be.
*
At the sound of the lunch bell, Kuroko slides open the door to the classroom and finds it empty except for a blonde boy sleeping on his desk.
“I’m here to tutor,” Kuroko calls out awkwardly, hoping he’d receive some kind of response.
The boy on the desk hears the familiar voice and bursts from his nap. Kuroko sees the face of the boy and makes a face.
“KUROKO-CCHI!!” Kise shrieks. “So you’re my tutor?”
No, Kuroko wants to say, but instead, he states, “I was appointed by the teacher.”
“This is great! My lucky day!” Kise squeals as Kuroko takes a seat from as far as he could get from the other.
From two desks away, Kuroko calls, “So what do you need help with?”
“Japanese! And come closer, Kuroko-cchi! How are we going to work like this?”
“I think this is good,” Kuroko grumbles. It’s not that he disliked the blonde; he was just verily annoying. Kise picks his chair up and scrapes it across the floor until he’s inches from Kuroko. The blue man sighs in frustration.
“There,” Kise breathes and grabs his work from the other table.
Kuroko calms down and asks, “What do you need help with?”
“Well, I didn’t understand this reading comprehension part,” the blonde regretfully informs, pulling out his last test. “I didn’t know what it meant by ‘make a connection to the text’.”
Kuroko thinks. “Well, did you understand what the story’s message was?”
“Nope,” Kise admits.
“Let’s start there,” Kuroko suggests, pulling his own test from his bag. On it is a noticeable red marking of 87 on it.
“You got that, Kuroko-cchi?” Kise gasps. “That’s amazing!”
“Yeah,” Kuroko answers, “It’s actually not hard to score high in Japanese if you take the time to understand it.”
Kuroko shifts in his seat and takes out a highlighter. “I like highlighting as it always helps me pick out the most significant things and put them together to form one big idea,” Kuroko explains and hands the writing utensil to Kise. “Try highlighting what you think is important in the passage.”
Kise puts the highlighter under his chin and stares at the kanji. He pops open the cap and gently glides the felt tip on the passage. Kuroko notices that Kise has highlighted the entire paragraph.
“Kise-kun,” Kuroko interrupts, “that’s not what I meant.”
“I couldn’t leave anything out! Everything seemed important to me.”
Kuroko sighs and rubs his hand on his forehead. He hadn’t known the blonde for long, but clearly, he knows less than the average kindergartener. Kuroko decides that it’s time for him to communicate to Kise in the language they both knew best.
“Why don’t we turn this into basketball?” Kuroko requests.
Kise perks up. “Basketball?”
Kuroko isn’t sure if this is going to work. “Yeah. What we want is a flawless shot in the end. What could help you get that shot?”
For the first time, Kise looks serious and deep in thought. He rests his head on the table and looks up at the ceiling, humming in thought.
“A pass, dribble, or a shot…” Kise mumbles.
“There are many ways you can connect the ball to get it to the net. Passing, dribbling and shooting are the main ways.”
Kise slowly nods.
Kuroko continues, “Let’s start with text-to-text connections. It’s when we’ve seen a similar idea expressed in another text.” Kuroko isn’t sure if Kise is actually processing the information or nodding in a daze. “Like, when we make shots in different hoops. We just want it to go in the basket. You can use the ball, which we can pretend is this text, and take it out of context to any hoop.”
Was that clear?
The other looks up at Kuroko with a thoughtful smile on his face.
“Yeah,” Kise acknowledges, “I think I’m getting it.” Kuroko is baffled that this is working. He really is a basketball nerd.
“Then we can make connections with ourselves and things that have happened with us. That can be dribbling, when the ball is always with you. Everything you do with the ball to get it to the net is a detail that you carefully decide to use.”
Kise starts scribbling on paper.
“Then we have our passes, which connects everyone on the team. This can be text-to-world connections, where you have can relate it to something going on that affects everyone. Just like passing.”
Once Kuroko stops talking, he catches his breath a little. He didn’t realize that he was talking for so long.
Kise jumps from his chair, which slams into the desk behind him.
“I think I understand!” he exclaims.
“Did you really understand from that,” Kuroko deadpans.
“Yes! I could imagine everything in my head. I think I can do this now. Thanks, Kuroko-cchi!”
Kuroko watches his excited tutee scratch his pencil on a fresh sheet of paper and feels a little good, slightly.
*
At the end of lunch, he has Kise running his hands through his hair in frustration, and he’s whining, “Was it always this simple?”
Kuroko hides a smile and replies, “I suppose.”
Kise bursts into a bubbly laugh. “This is really easy to understand. I don’t know why I didn’t understand it before,” he snorts, “I really was lucky to be tutored by you!”
The blonde’s giggling, and Kuroko can’t hide his small smile anymore.
He thinks, maybe this tutoring session wasn't so bad after all.
He thinks, maybe he’d like to do it again.
*
Kuroko’s on his way to his next class when he hears a voice shriek, “KUROKO-CCHI!”
Soon he’s down, on the floor in the middle of the hallway, and Kise is on top keeping him in check.
“Kise-kun, that hurts-”
“Look at this, Kuroko-cchi!” Kise shoves his Japanese assignment in the poor other’s face marked with a 76 on it. “This is amazing! And it’s all thanks to you!”
“I’m happy for you, but I’d be happier if you could get off me.”
Kise serenely hops off Kuroko and offers a hand. When Kuroko takes it, Kise pulls him into a quick, warm hug and runs off.
“Thank you, Kuroko-cchi!” His voice echoes from the end of the hallway.
Kuroko is lightly bruised, he notices as he dusts himself off, but he doesn’t feel the pain. In fact, there’s a flame flickering inside him, and it’s making him fuzzy and snug all over. Kuroko breathes a warm, heavy sigh.
That blonde, he was something special.