Work Text:
It was a normal weeknight. Shoyo had been struggling to complete a few assignments due to a lack of sleep. Kenma staying up at all odd hours of the night to play video games made it hard to get a full eight hours, so his studies had suffered noticeably. He was now hiding out at Tetsuro’s place, currently sitting with him at his desk.
Tetsuro looked upon Shoyo fondly as he painstakingly went over his assignment.
“Tetsu, could I get some help on this assignment?”
Tetsuro hummed to himself. “Not sure, Chibi-chan, I’m pretty busy over here,” he said, lounging back in his chair.
Shoyo frowned. “Busy what? Doing nothing?”
“Exactly! I’m cool with you coming over, but maybe you should ask Kenma for help, he’s pretty good at chemistry too.”
“My brother is good at chemistry because you tutor him,” Shoyo whined. He sighed. “Why can’t you help me this once?”
He held his chin in thought. “Alright, but my study time has some rules.”
Shoyo nodded.
“I’m a big believer in incentives, so how do you want to be rewarded?”
“Um,” Shoyo mumbled, tilting his head. “I don’t know, what do you usually do for Kenma?”
Tetsuro chuckled. “For every question he gets right, I add a dollar to a video game fund for him. It’s proven almost worryingly effective.”
Shoyo shuddered. “I pity your wallet.”
“It’s fine,” he said with a wave. “I get a lot of money from my grandparents. I’m even planning to get a part-time job once nationals are over so I can help him study next year.”
“But won’t you be in college?”
“Yeah, but I don’t mind helping out my best friend.”
Shoyo smiled softly. “That’s really nice of you to do. It almost seems suspicious.”
“Why does everyone assume that I’m a bad guy?” Tetsuro whined.
Shoyo giggled. “It’s because you have a crafty kind of vibe, I guess. You actually remind me of a cat sometimes.”
Tetsuro gawked. “For your information, I prefer dogs.”
“I know, but back to the point. Are you going to help me or not? I’ll let you come up with the reward. I don’t really care what it is, I just want to figure out these problems.”
Tetsuro smiled devilishly. “Oh?” he said. “Is that so? Anything?”
“See, this is what I mean, Tetsu,” he said with a sigh, pointing at him with his pencil. “Crafty.”
“What about a kiss?”
Shoyo’s head shot up, blush rising to his cheeks. “I’m sorry, what?”
“For every question you get right,” he explained. “I’ll kiss you. And I get to choose the location.”
Shoyo gaped, his mouth opening and closing a few times. “Tetsu, are you messing with me right now?”
Tetsuro stood, towering above Shoyo as he leaned in close to his face. “Why would I kid about something like this?”
Shoyo clicked his tongue, blush visible across the bridge of his nose. “Because you like to mess with people?”
Tetsuro stood up. “I do, but I’m not messing around. Now, would you like to get started?”
Shoyo sighed, rubbing at his warm cheeks. “Yeah, sure. Um, we’re balancing equations right now. I’m pretty confused.”
Tetsuro scooted his chair closer, their knees touching. “Let’s see here. Okay, it says that when methane and oxygen are combined, it produces carbon dioxide and water. Start by writing the formula for each. Methane is CH4.”
Shoyo nodded, scribbling away. “CH4 plus O2 becomes CO2 plus H2O,” he mumbled under his breath.
Brushing his hair back, Tetsuro placed a kiss on Shoyo’s forehead. “Exactly. Good job. Now let's start by figuring out how many molecules we have of each element on both sides. How much hydrogen is on the left side?”
“Uh—four,” he said, his voice shaky.
“Yep, and how many are on the right?”
Shoyo looked down, reading back over the formula. “Uhh—two, right?”
Tetsuro nodded. “So what do you need to do to make it equal on both sides?”
“Multiply the water by two?” he asked hesitantly.
A hand cupped Shoyo’s cheek delicately. Tetsuro leaned in, kissing him on the lips softly. “You are exactly right. So, what’s the next step?” he whispered against his lips.
Shoyo’s head spun, his cheeks bright red. He looked down at his paper once more, scribbling a hasty three beside the oxygen.
The hand retreated from Shoyo’s cheek, trailing along his jaw before leaving his face entirely. Tetsuro sighed, leaning back in his chair. “Nope. That gives you six molecules of oxygen on that side. The other side has four.”
Apologizing quickly, Shoyo erased the three, replacing it with a two. He looked up expectantly at Tetsuro.
He blew him a kiss. “Perfect. Now the next one.”
Disappointment stung in Shoyo’s chest for just a moment, followed by a sense of confusion. He shook his head and looked over the problem. He struggled for a minute and groaned.
“Here,” Tetsuro suggested. He picked up a pencil. “Try making a little chart for both sides and fill in the total number of each molecule on both sides. It’s better to see it than to have it just in your head sometimes.” He made a chart and filled in the information for the left side.
Shoyo filled in the information for the right side, and his shoulders relaxed as he correctly balanced the second equation on the worksheet. He sighed in relief as Tetsuro gave him an approving nod. He squirmed in his seat.
Tetsuro chuckled. “Do you want me to kiss you that bad? You sounded so unsure before,” he teased. His thumb caressed Shoyo’s wrist in circular motions.
Shoyo turned his head away. “Shut up. You’re the one that decided it would be a good reward.”
Placing a hand on Shoyo’s jaw, he turned his head. “How right I was, too. You’re too cute not to kiss.”
Shoyo kept his eyes locked on Tetsuro’s wall, staring at a poster of a cat with the caption ‘hang in there’ at the bottom. The ridiculousness of it made him want to laugh, but Tetsuro’s gaze bore through him, making him feel feverish. Feeling himself be pulled forward, he squeezed his eyes shut.
Tetsuro leaned forward, capturing Shoyo’s lips with his own once more. He held his face delicately as he pulled himself even closer, smirking as Shoyo kissed him back.
Shoyo’s hand dropped to Tetsuro’s thigh, clenching tightly into a fist as he pushed forward, closer to him.
Tetsuro licked at his bottom lip, deepening the kiss. He licked upward, brushing the roof of his mouth.
Shoyo squeaked, his toes curling and his hands flying to ball up in Tetsuro’s shirt.
Tetsuro pulled away, pressing his forehead against Shoyo’s. “So, do you think you’ll be able to finish the rest of the worksheet now?” he whispered.
Eyes fluttering open, Shoyo looked up at Tetsuro, his eyes glassy. He blinked. He jolted up, pushing back and away from Tetsuro. “Oh—uh—yeah! Thanks, I think I’ve got it now.” He turned back to his paper, nervously writing charts and filling in answers.
Tetsuro chuckled, stroking the shell of his brilliantly red ear with his finger. “Okay. I’m gonna look through your other work and make a little quiz for you while you finish that up.”
Shoyo nodded, continuing to write.
Fifteen minutes passed and Tetsuro finished up his small quiz for Shoyo. He looked up, finding Shoyo sneaking a glance at him. He chuckled and pulled out his phone, chewing on his lip just a bit too obviously.
Shoyo hurriedly wrote in the final answers on his worksheet. He turned and passed it to Tetsuro. “How’d I do?”
Tetsuro scanned over the answers, a furrow in his brow. He set the paper down on the table and looked him in the eye. “Absolutely perfect.”
Shoyo grinned triumphantly. “So, do I—uh—get a reward?”
“Hmm, not yet,” Tetsuro hummed. “I’ll give you the biggest reward yet if you can get a perfect score on this little quiz.” He waved the paper in front of him.
Shoyo smirked and grabbed the paper. His tongue stuck out as he worked through the questions.
Tetsuro watched him intently, running a distracting hand through his hair.
Multiple questions confused Shoyo, leaving him to circle a random answer in the hopes of it being correct. He filled out all the answers, looking them over with a scrutinizing eye. He grimaced, passing the paper to Tetsuro.
He looked it over quickly, circling the incorrect answers. “Not bad. I threw in a lot of questions pertaining to material you haven’t covered yet, which I’m sure you noticed—”
“Hey!”
Tetsuro chuckled. “I just wanted to check to see if you were paying attention, which you definitely were. The look on your face when you saw the question about combustion was so good. I thought you were gonna cry.”
Shoyo pouted. “Yeah, but I didn’t get all of them right. That was cruel of you.”
Tetsuro leaned forward, wrapping an arm around his waist. “You got everything else correct, though.” He kissed his cheek.
Shoyo smiled, nuzzling into his chest.
Tetsuro blushed, smiling down at him softly. He ruffled his hair, making him giggle. He leaned down and kissed him, wrapping his arm around his waist to pull him closer.
“Kuro, I’m redeeming—what the fuck?” Kenma said, abruptly slamming the door open and walking in.
Shoyo squeaked and ran out of the room.
“Dammit, Kenma, why can’t you knock?”
“Why were you kissing Shoyo?” he shouted.
The two continued to yell at each other for nearly an hour. Shoyo laid on his bed in his room, wrapped up tightly in his blanket. He grinned from ear to ear, touching his lips softly with his fingertips. The quick pace of his heart made it hard to sleep, but the warmth spreading from his head to his toes wrapped him up gently, aiding him into a peaceful slumber.