Chapter Text
Tetsutetsu’s head is on the verge of exploding.
There are numbers in front of him. So many numbers. Some of them big and small. There are also lots of lines and curves and symbols that he doesn’t even know existed before then. And letters. Why are there letters here, if it’s math?
“You can do this, Tetsutetsu.” Radiating good vibes, positive energy, beauty, and hope for his dim future in mathematics, Kendou Itsuka points to one of those combinations of letters and numbers on his messy sheet of paper with the end of her pencil. “Use this formula for problem #3. I’ll guide you through it step by step.”
And she does, slowly, like teaching the alphabet to a kindergartner. Tetsutetsu’s a lot embarrassed that she’s taking so much time with him just to make sure he passes the next exam, but at least it’s a lot of time sitting next to the prettiest girl in school!!!
He isn’t sure if it’s a good thing that Vlad-sensei assigned her to teach him math, though. Precisely because he’s head-over-heels, neck-deep, hopelessly in-love with Kendo Itsuka. Just sitting next to her, smelling the girly scent of some exotic flower that he won’t be able to identify ever, is causing him to get hot. What’s the melting point of iron again? Is he in actual trouble?
“Tetsu? You still with me?”
Tetsutetsu blinks. Teal eyes are staring right into his, just inches away. So close. So close. “Y--yes I am, Kendo-san! S-sorry, I’m too dumb for things like this, so--”
She’s pouting at him, and before he knows it his stupid iron teeth are gnashing together in panic. She sighs. “Don’t say self-deprecating things like that, Tetsu. And really, you’re still calling me Kendo?”
He’s a little confused, and not just because he’s not sure what ‘self-deprecating’ means. “Why wouldn’t I call you Kendo-san, Kendo-san? It’s your name after all…”
She tilts his head at him cutely. She’s so close, her vermilion side-ponytail’s brushing against his bare shoulder. Ah, so soft. “I have a first name, Tetsutetsu. Come on, I’ve been calling you by your first name since we started going out.” She pauses, and giggles. “Not that anyone would know, anyway.”
He feels his face heat up. G-going out?! With Kendo-san, the prettiest girl in school?! The class president? The girl of his dreams?! Since when?!?!
“What?! Don’t tell me you didn’t know?!” Kendo sighs exaggeratedly. “Tetsu, I literally asked you a couple of days ago if you wanted to go out with me, and you said yes!”
Ah! Two days ago? Yes, Tetsutetsu remembers Kendo-san banishing Monoma out of the empty classroom that afternoon, so that she could ask him if he was interested in going out with her. And he said yes, and they went out for ramen together, and when they got home, Kendo-san texted her that she had fun and she’d love to do that again, and…
Wait. So. That’s when… they went out? Back then, Tetsutetsu took it literally. Like, going out of school. Not like it was a date or something, but…
The beautiful girl next to him is staring at him curiously, a little worried. A pale hand on his arm. “Tetsu, so you didn’t know that it was--”
“Th… that was a date--” He stammers out stupidly. And then, just as stupidly, he stands up on their table in the library and shouts, with all the joy in his stupid little heart, “I… I WENT OUT ON A DATE WITH KENDO-SAN AFTER ALL!!!”
The girl now has a hand to her face as a number of stern librarians glare at them and shush the loudmouth ironboy. Her face is red, and she’s shaking a little, and she must be so embarrassed that she might just change her mind.
“K-kendo-san… I’m sorry… I’m really stupid. I must be dreaming, a perfect girl like you, going out with a dumbass like me,” he stammers, quieter this time. It won’t surprise him if she dumps his real steel ass right there and then, but instead, the girl looks up at him, a perfect smile on that perfect face.
“You are stupid for thinking that,” she tells him, and he flinches a little.
And she leans in and puts her lips to his, and instead of the mortifying embarrassment, he tastes the strawberry flavor in her lip gloss, and smells that beautiful girly flower smell from her wild, vermilion hair. His eyes are wide open, and he sees her long, beautiful eyelashes fluttering closed, in a real and proper kiss.
She pulls away from him the next moment with a devious smile on her face. “I hope that clears things up, Tetsu. I think you’re pretty perfect too.”
He feels actual steam going out of his ears. Damn, he loves this girl so much he wants to explode.
In the next moment, Kendo moves on to tell him about the next equation, but all he’s able to think of is strawberries, the closeness of her, and how he got dangerously close to the melting point of iron just then.