Work Text:
Yusaku yawned, rubbing tired eyes as he walked through the school gates. Between hunting hackers in Link VRAINS with Aoi, and doing freelance hacking work to get enough money for his living expenses, he barely had the time to sleep. Still, he wished he could legally swat at the fly that kept buzzing around him every day without fail.
“Fujiki! You should come to the duel club more often! We haven't had a duel in weeks! I’ve been trying out all kinds of different strategies so I can hold my own against you!”
Yusaku almost laughed. Almost. Naoki still hadn't caught on to the fact that he had been using a fake deck in every one of their duels, not even trying to beat his classmate but still utterly dominating him in every single duel. It would be a miracle if Naoki ever made a deck that could beat his real one.
He began to tune out the other boy, sick of his mindless chatter that often continued even through class, much to their teacher’s dismay. A girl fell into step next to him, tentatively listening to Naoki’s words, before deciding they weren’t important and playfully hitting Yusaku’s arm.
She spoke in a tone that betrayed her amusement at his present state. “Morning, Yusaku. Not much sleep, huh?”
Yusaku gave her a sideways look, glaring at her with an expression that promised hell. “Morning, Aoi. I was up working until four.”
Aoi hummed, giving him a contemplative look. “Maybe you should spend less time in Link VRAINS, after all. Sleep deprivation exists, you know. One of these days, you’re going to shut down, and it will be your own fault. When that happens, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
A small atmosphere of their own began to build up as they ignored everyone around them. “You're one to talk, you're online even more than I am. Don't you have anything else to do?”
“Not particularly. Besides, it's fun playing around online. At least I get to sleep at a reasonable time, unlike you. You really do need a break.”
Naoki shoved his way between them, breaking the atmosphere with an annoyed groan. “Speaking of Link VRAINS, what are your names online? You never got around to telling me, and I want to hang out as well!”
As one, Yusaku and Aoi turned their worst glares at him. “It's none of your business.” Conversation ruined, they walked the rest of the way to the doors in, barring Naoki’s endless chatter, relative silence, parting ways with soft goodbyes and heading to their own classes.
Of course, Naoki followed Yusaku, chattering all the way. Yusaku's sleep deprived mind briefly contemplated murder, but quickly dismissed the idea. It wasn't worth the hassle.
“So, Fujiki, how do you think you went on the assignment?”
Yusaku's mind and body both ground to a halt, slowly, robotically, turning to look at the other teenager. “What assignment?”
“The one that's due today? What, did you forget?”
Yusaku swore. His mind vaguely went back to a sheaf of papers, sitting on the table back in his apartment. He’d completely forgotten about their existence. Sighing, he resigned himself to his fate as he shoved open the classroom door with excessive force.
The teacher had yet to arrive, so he trudged up the stairs to his seat, sitting down and resting his head on the desk with a groan. He stared at the permanently empty seat in front of him, lamenting the fact that Takeru had transferred back to his previous school after everything was over. At least he had been some decent conversation. As it was, now he was just stuck with Naoki.
Slowly but surely, he began to doze off, even as the bell rang and the teacher walked in. He would deal with the consequences later. For now, even the smallest bout of sleep would help him focus.
He woke to his head being doused in water, drowsily sitting up as his eyes focused on the irritated form of Aoi. There was an upturned glass in her hand, dripping clear water as a small puddle formed on his desk. He stared at her, slowly processing what had happened, then glared at her.
“Was that really necessary?”
Aoi glared at him, clearly finding the question itself unnecessary. “Yes. You wouldn’t wake up, so they interrupted my lunch to bring me here. If you’re going to sleep during class, why even bother coming to school?”
Yusaku brought his hands to his hair, wringing out the water with a grimace. “You could have just let me sleep.” He rose from the chair, picking up his bag to rummage through its contents for his lunch.
“Normally I would, but the teacher insisted. You didn’t do your homework either? I guess we’ll both have to stay back, then.”
He directed a questioning gaze at her. “Aren’t you usually on top of your homework? What happened?”
Aoi looked away, embarrassed. “I guess I got too caught up in playing around online. I only finished half of it and put it down because I was having trouble with it.”
Yusaku grumbled a response. “At least you started yours. I left mine at home, so I need to go print out another copy. I’ll see you later, then.” He gave a short yawn, making his way back down the steps to leave the room.
Aoi watched him leave, a frustrated look on her face. She looked through her own bag, bringing out her incomplete assignment to look at it, and looked back to the door, frowning.
---
Yusaku sighed as the final bell rang, slowly making his way to the room where he would be working on his assignment. The room was empty, save for Aoi, who gave him a tired smile and a wave, before returning her focus to her own work.
He sat down in a seat near the door, pulling his assignment from his bag and placing it on the desk. He read through it first, mentally going through each question to gain a basic understanding of each one, then returning to the first page and retrieving a pen so he could start.
It was slow going. He skipped some of the questions, planning on coming back to them later. It would be more efficient to get the simplest questions out of the way first. As he moved on to the more complex ones, he began to have trouble and grit his teeth in frustration.
After mulling over a specific question for a long period, he slowly wrote out his answer, hoping it was correct.
“That’s wrong.” Aoi’s finger jabbed out at the page, pointing directly at the passage he’d just written.
Yusaku jumped back, startled by the declaration, and turned to look at her, scandalised. “You didn’t have to do that! Shouldn’t you be focusing on your own work?”
She was watching over his shoulder, frowning at his assignment, and reached forward to leaf through it, checking his answers. “You’re not very good at English, are you? Some of these sentences are broken. Here, let me show you.” She moved around him, sitting in the seat next to him and pulling the papers to rest between them on the desk.
Her own assignment was discarded to the side, and Yusaku glanced at it, noting the constant revisions to her own answers as if she was unsure of them herself. He raised an eyebrow at it, but Aoi waved a pen in front of his face before he could ask about it.
“Are you even listening? I’m trying to help you out here.” Sighing, she simply flicked back to the beginning of the assignment, going through each question with him. Some of them he’d gotten correct, but there was a higher percentage of incorrect answers, even on the ones he’d thought were okay.
He looked at her, surprised. “How did you get so good at this?” For him, at least, it was completely unexpected that she would have such a good grasp on another language.
She looked away for a moment, but gave him an answer. “During my more popular phase as Blue Angel, I would often get requests from people even outside of Japan. I don’t know how they heard of me, but I ended up learning English so that it would be easier to communicate with them. It should be useful in the future, anyway, so it probably won’t be wasted effort.”
Yusaku nodded, but there was a suspicious feeling growing in him as she continued to thoroughly explain the questions for him, helping him fewer times as he began to gain a better understanding of the language and was able to answer even the questions he had been having trouble with. “Why are you putting so much effort into helping me?”
Aoi’s face went red as she reached for her own homework. As she brought it over, Yusaku could see that it was full of mistakes that had been corrected by her own teacher, and blinked in realisation as she began speaking.
“Could you help me out with my own homework? I was planning to ask you earlier, but you walked out before I could.”
Yusaku looked over her work, seeing where she had gone wrong, and contemplated for a moment before nodding. “You helped me out with mine, so I’ll return the favour.”
They hadn’t yet finished going through Yusaku’s assignment, but they began to alternate between the two pieces of work, slowly but surely sharing their understandings of the subjects with each other. It took them well over an hour to finish once they started working together, but they were both better off for it, gaining more confidence in the subjects that they had been lacking in.
Once they were both done, they headed towards the teacher’s lounge, handing in the sheets to their respective teachers while apologising and promising it wouldn’t happen again.
They were making their way to the gates when Aoi spoke up, not entirely looking at him. “Could you, maybe, tutor me occasionally? Your explanations were more helpful than the teacher’s were.”
Yusaku looked at her for a moment, somewhat shocked by the question, but he thought over it and nodded. “Only if you help teach me English in return. Like you said, it will probably be useful in the future, right?” He gave a small smile in her direction, right as she turned back to look at him with her own.
“Thanks.”
They both fell silent, but Aoi was staring at his face, frowning slightly. He was about to ask what she was doing, but she cut him off.
“Yusaku? Don’t smile, it doesn’t suit you.”
He felt like he was supposed to be angry at the comment, but it wasn’t the first time he’d gotten one of that nature, so he just ignored it as they parted ways, heading in the directions of their respective homes.