Chapter Text
If Aomine felt like being lectured about keeping his grades up, he would have just showed his mother his report card despite the great lengths he goes to avoid bringing up the subject. But yet, here he stands, being lectured, quite aggressively he might add, by the captain of the basketball team.
“Aomine, what the hell? How can you get these kinds of grades and still expect to be a member of the basketball team? Any sports team, really? Are you dumb? Are you dense? Do you just not care!?” Hyuuga’s glasses were practically cracked from the volume of his speech to the uncaring boy.
Aomine shrugged lazily and sighed, “I don’t see the big deal! If I’m scoring baskets, then who cares?”
A vein popped in Hyuga’s neck, “The school cares, Aomine! School first, extracurriculars second! This is obvious information, I shouldn’t have to tell you this! The team manager is close to kicking you off the team if you don’t get better grades.”
Aomine shifted his gaze and sucked his teeth in irritation, “That’s not my order! Geez, stop nagging me, I’ll do better. Promise.”
Hyuga frowned, “I don’t trust your empty promises, Aomine…”
“But I --” Aomine was interrupted by Hyuga continuing to talk.
“But, I made a deal with the manager. I told him that if you went to tutoring at least three times a week for your lowest grade, that you could still continue to be on the team. Not like you come to practices anyways, so you can go there after school instead.” He explained.
“Huh!? Tutoring!? This is unfair...I get enough school during the day and now you want me to do extra school? This shit blows…” Aomine complained once more.
At this point, Hyuga probably already popped a blood vessel talking to his underclassman. Losing patience, Hyuga grabbed Aomine’s ear and pulled downwards abruptly, causing Aomine’s whole upper body to tip forward toward the ground. “Listen here you ungrateful little boy, my ass is on the line as much as yours for not watching over your grades. I did you a favor so you are going to tutoring and you are going to get better grades. It’s not a choice scenario, it’s a demand and you’re going to follow, got it?” He said through gritted teeth, pulling Aomine’s ear even tighter than before.
“Okay, okay! I got it, I’ll go! Let me go!”
//////
The next day, Aomine groaned as the last bell for class dismissal rung in his ears. Aomine quickly threw his books in his bag to run home before anybody could see him, but as soon as he opened the classroom door, Hyuga was standing outside with his arms folded.
“Geez, Aomine, you sure look eager to get to tutoring with the way you’re running out of the room.” Hyuga said with a straight face.
“Hyuga, what the hell? Are you stalking me to make sure I actually go? What happened to our inter-teammate trust? Our bonds?” Aomine faked a frown in hopes of earning sympathy points.
Alas, to no avail, Hyuga’s eyebrows furrowed in irritation. “I was right not to trust you! I’m surprised you were even in class! Anyway, take your ass to the library. You have a 3:15 private one-on-one appointment with the math tutor.”
Aomine groaned once more, “Fine, fine. I’ll go to this dumb thing three times a week and stare at this nerd’s face for a whole hour..” He turned on his heels and headed in the direction of the library. A part of him wanted to turn around and check to see if Hyuga was following him through the hallways, but the other part of him wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.
After a few minutes, Aomine finally arrived at the library, quietly opening the doors and peering inside. He saw a few students at the shelves browsing leisurely at the selection of books the school had, but he saw only one student sitting at the nearby tables, so he walked over and sat down immediately in the front of the man.
Pulling his bag off his shoulder, Aomine greeted his could-be tutor, “Yo. You the tutor?” Aomine examined the person in front of him, including his overly-large frame, his uniquely-shaped eyebrows, and his bright, fiery red hair with eyes to match. It wasn’t the exact stereotypical image he had in his mind of what a tutor would look like, but he wasn’t complaining. In fact, Aomine thought he was considerably attractive and thought he could get used to the close contact tutoring he was signed up for.
The red-haired man immediately stopped writing his assignment and looked up at Aomine, “Yo? Is that how you greet your teachers?”
Aomine frowned, “But you’re not a teacher. You’re a student, just like me. Therefore, yo.”
The rude response made him frown even deeper than Aomine, “Nice to meet you too.” He said sarcastically.
“I’m Aomine Daiki. So, let’s get to it. Let’s learn some math!”
“I know who you are. You’re the oh-so great athlete, Aomine Daiki. Everyone around school knows who you are.” The frown never left his face.
“So, what’s your name? I can’t call you tutor forever.” Aomine asked.
“Kagami. Kagami Taiga. What do you need help with? I heard you were taking trigonometry from your captain.”
“All of it.” Aomine answered honestly.
“All of it, really!?” Kagami replied exasperatedly.
Aomine nodded, “Yes, start from square one. I haven’t been paying attention.”
Kagami sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in irritation, “Alright, so square one. Do you know what a triangle is?”
This prompted a light chuckle from Aomine, “It’s the thing with the three sides. I know that much.”
“You just called it a “thing” and not a shape though…”
“You get the idea!”
Kagami handed him a piece of paper and a pencil, “Here, draw one.”
“Seriously, Kagami? What am I in like kindergarden?” Aomine frowned.
“I’m just following directions, you said square one!” Kagami replied casually.
Aomine quickly drew the shape on the paper and handed it back to Kagami, who quickly began to scribble down a series of formulas and labels on his triangle. With all the equations, symbols, and variables being written down at such lightning speeds, Aomine thought he was writing in hieroglyphics.
Aomine’s jaw dropped, “Wow, you really know your stuff, Kagami. That’s impressive and surprising.”
Kagami glanced up from his paper, “I am your tutor so I should know my stuff, but why is it surprising?”
Aomine blinked, “Well, I don’t know. You just don’t look like the type to you know...study. You’re more of the athletic type type to me.”
Kagami frowned, “Well sorry I don’t fit your stereotypical image! It’s possible to be good at both sports and academics! You don’t have to choose one or the other! If you realized this sooner and put as much time into studying as you do in sports, then you wouldn’t need my help, idiot.”
Aomine gasped, “Are you allowed to call me an idiot!?”
“I can if you say dumb things like that!”
Aomine laughed at how fired up Kagami got at his remarks, “Alright, alright, my bad. Let’s get back to the lesson. The sooner we finish, the sooner I can go home.”
In the hour that the lesson continued, Aomine felt like he experienced a whole another day of school with how much information Kagami packed into his lessons. Although he complained, Aomine had to admit that he was actually a really great, patient teacher. Although he was strict with his lessons, Aomine could tell there was an underlying passion beneath his words and that he truly wanted Aomine to understand his explanations.
Feeling a pair of eyes staring at him and not at the paper, Kagami glanced up, “Aomine, are you listening to me? Are you confused or something?”
“Nah, I’m just...I’m just getting burned out. Can we continue this another day?” Aomine asked.
“Um, sure. I understand, I could go on for hours about this type of thing. But we can continue this whenever you want.” Kagami said, standing up and packing his papers back into his bag.
“Sure, we can do this again tomorrow if you’re free. Thanks a lot, though. I really appreciate it. I know you’re probably busy with doing your own work, but you found time in your day to help me with mine.” Aomine admitted honestly, prompting Kagami turn around and look at him.
Kagami’s eyes widened at Aomine’s words, “Did I really help you out that much, Aomine?” The navy-haired boy nodded, prompting a smile from Kagami, “Thank you, that makes me so happy to know that.”
Aomine fidgeted in his pockets and finally pulled out his phone, handing it to Kagami.
“What’s this for?” Kagami blinked.
“Your number! If you’re my tutor, I should be able to call you if I have questions, right?” Aomine gave him a bright smile in return, causing a light blush to form on Kagami’s cheeks.
“Uh...yeah...sure.” Kagami stuttered out from his increasingly blushing face. “For academic purposes only, right?”
Aomine smirked, “Yeah, for academics only.”