Work Text:
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It has been acknowledged that by the end of their studying session, Amami'd end up smothering one of them by making use of the pillow residing a few inches from him.
They're seated around the kotatsu table with their school sheets scattered around them like the dead orange leaves during mid Autumn, surrounding the trees and littering the ground. The table's pretty long and entirely bestrewn with papers, no longer arranged together into a neat pile. Amami's jaw twitches to a slight extent. His fingers under the table tightly curl into a fist before he tries to subtly inhale through his nostrils.
This won't end too well, Amami faintly thinks, taking in and surveying the expanse of his bedroom. Ouma’d sprawled himself across his bed, resembling anything but a starfish as the bed produces infuriating creaking sounds while he tries to find himself a comfortable reclining position. His checkered patterned scarf is draped on the footboard and uses one of the sheets to fan himself, his customary smug of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips with flickering lashes. Amami's one step away from kicking him from his house.
He's frighteningly close, he concedes.
"Ouma-kun." Amami rubs his thumb and index finger around his temple in circular motions in constancy, tackling down the churning annoyance bubbling up his chest. "We're not halfway done yet, come sit here and let's get this over and done with."
Saihara, who is sitting opposite Amami, gives him a questioning and calculating look, abandoning his shared textbook for a moment. "Are you alright? You seem like you're out of it."
"I am fine. Just tired a little."
And with half-lidded eyes and fist on cheek, Amami focuses half of his attention on the person behind the reason he impetuously agreed on allowing them to study at his house after school, including letting them stay during the night. Kaede is seated beside Saihara, her fingers holding the stack of revision reviews she heedfully prepared with Amami in the library during recess. He isn't utterly pleased with the turnout of event, considering he'd only aimed to help her nail her remake test and no one else. Ouma eavesdropped on their conversation and nagged Amami to teach him, too.
"Saihara-chan can come, too, right?" Ouma'd asked earlier that day, snatching the paper Saihara held shamefully out of his reach. "He needs a little help."
Amami was slightly hesitant, shifting his gaze between Ouma and Saihara before sighing, beat. "Alright, what time is more suitable for you guys?"
Ouma had shrugged, leaning back against his chair and placed one foot across the table, resulting in receiving a tired stare from Saihara to which he decided to dismiss. "How about the weekends Amami-chan? It's tomorrow."
"I didn't agree to have you all stay at my house over the night."
"I don't think it'd be a bad idea Amami-kun." Kaede says, folding her test results into thirds and pushed it inside the center of her enormous textbook. "I think spending time together sounds like a great idea!"
"I understand why Akamatsu-san and Saihara-kun need help but Ouma-kun, which subject do you need help with?"
Ouma straightens his posture, grinning. "There's one subject I really, reeeeeaaally need help with. Amami-chan, you're a genius, aren't you? You'd help me so much!"
Amami didn't believe him, but despite himself, a small smile cracked through his facade; Ouma's lips curling from either side was rather compelling. They scheduled to meet up together the next morning, and Amami finds dread developing at a frightening speed in the pit of his stomach. Upon their arrival, Ouma kicked his shoes off in the foyer and proceeded to claim a swathe of his bedroom floor and said, "It's alright if half of your room belongs to me during my stay, right? I do need a looot of space to concentrate after all!" He doesn't seem interested in asking him any questions regarding his failed test however, smoothing out his attire like he has all the time in the world to do so. Saihara's reviewing some of Kaede's weak points. He isn't one who normally shows an interest in subjects in general, but when it comes to maths, his layer of disinterest peels off and his eyes glistens in anticipation as he tries to solve the problems presented to him.
"I don't think anyone is intending to invade your personal space Ouma-kun." Amami says, his eyes lingering on the paper Saihara and Kaede were concentrating on, trying his best to scrutinise the questions upside down without making it known.
Ouma chuckles, throwing his legs across Amami's bed to have them touch the plush carpet, his toes sinking deeper into the velvet texture of the fabric and makes it tickle, wiggling. "Saihara-chan definitely would."
"I w-wouldn't!" Saihara comments, his eyes still focusing on the exercise as he continues to scribble the digits rapidly. Kaede scrunches her nose and quirks a brow in puzzlement, and Saihara apologises profusely, flustered by how eager he had subconsciously gotten.
"Eh, you wouldn't?" Ouma feigns surprise and slips from Amami's bed, plopping directly onto the fluffy cushion on the vacant spot beside Saihara and slips his legs through the kotatsu, sighing loudly in contentment; welcoming the warmth it radiated with open arms. The papers go in different directions because of the impact and Amami begins to pick them up with furrowed brows, battling the urge to release an elongated sigh. He neatly rearranges them one by one in order and staples them at last. He surreptitiously glances at Ouma from his peripheral vision all the while he continues the task in hand and notices an expression he couldn't quite decipher, but it vanishes in the blink of an eye, without finding the chance to peruse it.
"Did you think I was being serious again, Saihara-chan? I was just lying. Of course you wouldn't invade my personal space." He waves a finger around. "You're so gullible."
"You're always like this."
He pouts, settling on not replying back and squishes his face with the cushion he was holding.
"Hmm..." Amami mindlessly hums, albeit almost silently and spins the pen between his long slender fingers after taking his seat again, frowning. A known but yet unfamiliar tightness clamours and claws its way up his chest when his eyes don't bother to detach from his frontal; very much akin to a storm kept at bay. He doesn't wholly comprehend it himself, and without registering much of his movements, he finds his free hand pressed on the table as his upper anatomy hovers above it. He licks the dry part of his bottom lip to moisturise it as his head's thrummed over well a dozen thoughts, and asks the most convenient one swimming around his mess of a mind: “are you sure that’s how the teacher taught us to solve it?” He taps the paper with a questioning gaze.
Saihara's brows twist together into a knot, taken aback. “Yes,” he says, self-doubt suddenly flits behind his eyes and he grabs the bag neatly tucked in the space between himself and Kaede, ruffling inside it to pull out his notes. “Unless, I wasn’t paying attention to the teacher? Now that I think about it... that day, I was really exhausted. I didn’t pay as much attention as I normally would. Did I not understand the lesson well?” He mutters, the space between his eyebrows wrinkling.
Amami deadpans, lips twitching and flops back, a comical sweat plasters just above his brow and his eyelids flutter to a closure, heaving a sigh. “No, no, the method you’re using is the correct one. Since it was upside down, I was having a hard time following the steps you were using and misunderstood.”
“Why were you even looking at it in the first place?” Ouma asks, part of his tonality drips with amusement. His arms are hugging the cushion from beneath, with his head resting on it and regards Amami with eyes hinting curiosity.
"I was just making sure." He calmly replies, revealing his vibrant green eyes and stares back at Ouma with a straight expression. "Where are your books anyway? You're the only one not preparing for the test. Weren't you the one that suggested we all studied together...?"
"Nishishi." He laughs, like he's been waiting for someone to ask and picks up the shrugged off chemistry exam from the floor, placing it on the surface of the table with a proud grin. Amami follows his movement and stares at the paper for a couple of seconds and to be quite frank, he saw it coming. He nailed it and scored all the marks. "I just wanted to join the fun, really. And I can help Saihara-chan with his English!"
He looks up from the exercise upon hearing his name, confused because he wasn't listening. "What?"
"Ouma-kun wants to help you." Kaede repeats, rubbing the back of her neck and rolls her shoulders, her neck probably sore because she's been doing nothing but staring at Saihara's hand dance across her textbook for the past thirty minutes.
"You've helped Akamatsu-chan a lot! And you haven't started studying either." Ouma says, slightly shuffling closer to Saihara. "Amami-chan will help Akamatsu-chan! Don't worry about her." He quickly adds when he sees that Saihara's in a dilemma, debating whether or not it's okay to abandon her when he's halfway through his explanation and Kaede nods, indicating him that it's alright. He finally turns his attention towards a satisfied Ouma and for a brief moment, faster than the gust of wind brushing past his hair, his eyes glistens like a lantern lit alight.
Amami sighs, and looks away. He doesn't move for a good ten seconds for his own well being and focuses on his retractable pen instead of his chest. He mentally counts the minuscule goldish roses embellished across it and clicks it repeatedly with this thumb to give his racing mind enough time to slow down a little.
And then, he raises his head and to his surprise, violet meets green. "Amami-kun, are you alright?"
He nods and inhales deeply before he joins her side.
"How much do you not understand?" He asks.
Kaede flips the page over, her eyes scanning through it intently before she stops. Her nose slightly scrunches up, like it always does when she doesn't understand something. It's cute, Amami thinks.
She taps on one of the geometry questions. "I don't really get this one."
"Alright. Let's have a look." He says, automatically shifting closer to take a better look at the book and moves his face downwards to read over the question. "Exactly which part do you not understand?"
"Umm, all of it." Kaede says, her voice sounds different; slightly high pitched. Noting the sudden change in her tone, he peers at her, only to realise their noses are centimeters apart from touching and moderately jolts back, sheepish and rubs his nose.
He starts explaining the basis of angle geometry and how she's supposed to work them out, which formula she's meant to use and such, with her lightly nodding her head whenever he looks at her to ensure she's following him; sometimes his gaze lingers a few moments longer before he snaps out of it. The time passes quickly, with the soft sounds of Ouma and Saihara's interactions in the background; Ouma casually chuckling from time to time and Saihara battles one of his own, bubbling up his chest before he sets it free, too.
They continue studying for a couple hours longer. The circumference of the blaring sun dips closer to the horizen as it kisses the rooftops of the buildings, until it completely fades from their range of vision, and that's when they call it a day, after Kaede starts yawning and Saihara mutters being tired. The curtains are closed and both Saihara and Ouma are huddled together on the same futon in the corner of Amami's room. ("Sleeping alone is too cold, you know?And you're very warm Saihara-chan." Ouma had said, crawling inside Saihara's own futon with his hands slipping under Saihara's shirt. Amami had known since Saihara randomly shrieked, yelling about how cold Ouma's hands felt against his warm skin.)
"Haven't you studied enough? Any longer and you'll end up with a headache." Amami says, slumped up in the center of the carpet and looks at her ruffle through her stack of papers. They're the only ones awake at this point, since Kaede insisted she wanted to finish it all at once. She grips her phone with the torch switched on and her eyes move from side to side, trying to absorb as much as she can.
"No, but I'm almost done." She replies, flipping the page over.
Amami hums and taps his fingers on the ground. "Aren't you...going to ask for my help either?" He asks again and rolls to his side to have a better look at her, his elbow propped on the ground and rests his cheek on his palm.
Kaede shakes her head. "It's fine, I think I understand everything."
Amami nods in response, despite knowing she isn't paying any heed towards him and gazes at the ceiling in the darkness, starting to hum to a random song very out of tune, which, much to his surprise, has Kaede snort faintly, but she's able to suppress her laugh so she doesnt wake the other two. This causes the left side of Amami's lips to curl into a sleepy smile.
"Akamatsu-san, that's enough. Take a break at least." He mutters and he notices how she looks at him, her purple irises glowing brightly because of the torch. She briefly stares at the papers before she joins him on the ground, her shoulders nearly brushing against his.
Kaede moves closer, but not close enough to have them touch. "I'm sorry," she begins, inhaling. "I just wanted to finish everything over tonight so tomorrow I don't bother you with any more studies. You know, like we could all spend a day together without worrying about school."
"You wouldn't bother me." is the first thought that comes across his mind but instead, the second one is the one he voices: "I was the one who offered to help, you shouldn't think so."
"I know."
"But you could've asked for my help today, you know?"
"Huh?" She asks, confused.
"You could have." He repeats, clearly aware she heard it the first time. "You've only asked for Saihara-kun's, though."
"Ah, that's because he sat closest to me."
"I know, I know." he says and moves closer to her, losing against his temptation and wraps an arm around her waist to pull her closer to him, resting his chin atop her hair.
Kaede laughs lightly and squeezes him a little, welcoming the warmth he's emitting and smiles. "Were you by chance mad at me?"
"No." Amami bits down the lower part of his lip.
"I could sense you were a bit weird." She points out, her voice filled with merriment and shuffles even closer, searching for more warmth and tangles their legs together. "Amami-kun, you were jealous."
"Maybe." He admits and pouts, tracing random circles around her back with his fingers. The sound of his heart beating is as loud as his own voice; drumming loudly against his ribcage.
Kaede doesn't reply back though and eventually, after a couple of seconds pass, Amami can hear the soft sounds of her snors fill the room, her chest slowly heaving up and down. He chuckles, brushing some hair out of her face. "You've worked hard today, good night."
After a period of time, after he successfully gets hold of the blanket not too far away, he wraps it around themselves so they don't freeze to death (considering they're sleeping on the floor instead of the futon; Kaede's a light-sleeper and he doesn't have the heart to wake her up after she arduously studied throughout the day) and silently, he falls asleep, too.