Archive of Our Own ^beta

“It’s no use - I’ll never pass midterms like this.” Hikari lamented, resting her head on the kitchen table.

Amidst the overdue homework assignments and open textbooks, Hikari was suffocating. Sat opposite of her, Takeru only snickered, rolling his eyes gently at her dramatic flair.

“Hikari, you’ll be fine if you actually study. I don’t think that sitting here, watering your kitchen table with tears, qualifies.”

With her head buried in her arms, the table absorbed most of Hikari’s reply. 

“What was that? Don’t be shy, speak up.” 

Bangs whipping around, Hikari’s eyes met his own, a disgruntled pout poking at her lips. “That’s easy for you to say. You’re the one that knows how to use the quadratic formula. Since when did we use the alphabet in math class, anyway?” 

Takeru outright laughed, cheeks rosy with mirth. 

“It’s not funny!” Hikari chastised, the corners of her mouth betraying her by turning upwards. “ You’ll pass the midterms, and I’ll have to stay back a grade. At this rate, I’ll be graduating with Iori.” 

Shuffling the papers strewn across the table, Takeru leaned in, mischievousness shining in his eyes. “If studying is that big of an issue for you, I have a better idea. Would you like to play a game?” 

Hikari tilted her head in confusion, chewing on her bottom lip. “A game? When we’re supposed to be studying? I don’t know, is that such a good idea?”

“Don’t be so worried. This game is a homework game; my brother taught it to me when I was in middle school.” He continued to organize her papers, arranging them into piles by subjects. Hikari’s eyes lingered on a pile of her test scores, miniscule numbers circled by an angry red pen. 

The clock ticked quietly in the hallway, Hikari’s house silent aside from the scratch of Takeru’s pencil. With her family at a dinner party and brother away at college, Hikari had thought it would be the perfect afternoon to review some of her classwork.

Now, with Takeru preening over every missed  answer and abysmal grade, she wasn’t so sure. 

“Maybe,” Hikari relented. She had already resigned to letting Takeru tutor her; a game might make the time pass faster. 

“Perfect,” he gleamed. Tossing his pencil to the side, Takeru leaned back in his chair, hands crossed behind his head. “Now, the rules of the game are simple: everytime you complete a problem or worksheet correctly, you earn a reward.”

Leaning forward, Hikari’s eyes grew wide.”What kind of reward?” For a moment, she felt as if she were eight-years-old, excited at the prospect of earning something. 

Takeru shrugged, letting his hands fall in his lap. “I don’t know, that kind of depends on you. When Yamato played with me, I always picked things like ice cream or a turn with the Gameboy.”

Absent-mindedly, Hikari chewed on the tip of her pen, mulling over Takeru’s offer. “But,” she started, head tilting towards the side, “What happens if I get a question wrong?”

A smirk played across her friend’s lips, as if he were about to laugh at a joke she had never told. “That’s for me to decide.” 

Hikari must have looked as shocked as she felt, eliciting a singular snort from her tutor. 

“Ne, don’t worry. Nii- san would make me take shots of hot sauce or wash his laundry. I promise I wouldn’t be that cruel. Besides,” he paused, quivering an eyebrow, “I thought you trusted me.”

Heat rushed to Hikari’s cheeks, an unidentifiable feeling simmering in her stomach. 

“As long as I don’t have to drink hot sauce, I think we’ll be fine.” She offered him a small smile before focusing on the piles in front of her. Apprehension bubbled in her stomach. 

Rubbing his palms together, Takeru tossed Hikari a calculator. “Alright, show me what you got.”

And for twenty minutes, Hikari tried. As a worn pencil scratched against the worksheets, she did her best to navigate herself through the first problem, writing and rewriting the formula, receiving different answers with every try. 

With a huff, Hikari turned the paper towards Takeru. “Is this one the answer, then?”

His hand skimmed over hers as he examined her hard work. Quickly, Hikari pulled her hand away, heart beating erratically in her chest. 

Takeru’s eyes met hers briefly before refocusing on the assignment. 

“A decimal?” he questioned, eyebrows extended high on his forehead. “Hikari, the problem only used whole numbers. There was no division; how did you manage to get a decimal ?” 

Unwillingly, tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. A small sniffle pulled his attention towards her once more, his gaze softening. “Hey, none of that. Besides defying the laws of mathematics, you’ve still done a good job. At first, you followed the formula perfectly. You only messed up here,” the eraser of his pencil circled the spot, “And here.” He highlighted the afflicted areas before turning the  homework back to Hikari. Muttering her thanks, she bent her head once more, determined to find the right answer.

“Not so fast there, Hikari.” Takeru chastsized , tongue clicking disapprovingly. “You got the question wrong. You owe me.”

With her mouth agape, Takeru couldn’t help but to laugh. “Quit looking so scared. When have I ever led you astray?” 

He ignored her incredulous look, arms crossing his chest. “Since this is your first offense, I’ll go easy on you. Now, humor me: What’s the most embarrassing thing you’ve ever done?” 

Flush rose to Hikari’s cheeks, Takeru’s gaze heavy on her face. “I didn’t realize we were middle-schoolers playing truth-or-dare.” Math problems forgotten, Hikari rolled her eyes.

Takeru tugged his own workbook out of his bookbag, flipping to the appropriate page. “Then tell me, have you always been this bad at math?’ 

A small intake of breath was his only warning before Hikari’s fist collided with his shoulder. For her sake, he pretended to flinch, rubbing his arm with an infuriating grin plastered to his face.

“If I hadn't been this bad at math, then you wouldn’t have been able to come to my house and eat all of my snacks.” She raised a singular eyebrow in his direction, as if daring him to continue.

Popping another apple slice into his mouth, Takeru was in no position to argue.

With a satisfied smirk, Hikari turned back to her worksheet, correcting the sections that her tutor marked. 

The second question proved to be tougher, the numbers morphing into fractions, letters sprinkled in for garnish. 

Lip caught between her teeth, Hikari did her best to recall the way Takeru  modeled the problem, but her mind only drew blanks. All she remembered was the way he stood behind her, heat emanating from his body. With Takeru’s hand on her shoulder, it made it nearly impossible for her to formulate any thoughts, much less absorb whatever he had been teaching her.

Now, as she sat across from him, the only thought she could form was how blue his eyes looked against the gray hue of their uniforms. 

Accepting defeat, her pencil scribbled along the paper, writing down whichever numbers looked the best.

“Are you finished?” Takeru asked between bites of another apple slice. His own homework lay to the side, his handwriting forming neat little lines. She had half the mind to take a peek at his answers; Hikari would do anything to wipe the annoying grin from his mouth. 

The clock continued to click in the hallway, the hum of the refrigerator interrupting Hikari’s focus. 

It seemed that no matter how long she stared at the formulas, she couldn’t decipher their meanings. Takeru had explained the concept over and over; the sun had nearly set outside of her balcony. 

As a sigh of anguish ruffled her bangs,  Takeru leaned over to examine her work.  

“Wrong.” A smug smirk settled across his mouth, eyes half-lidded. Hikari’s mouth ran dry, momentarily distracted by the odd heat of Takeru’s gaze. 

“Could you - Could you maybe go over the formula again?” Hikari stumbled over her words, anxiously chewing at the tip of her pen. 

“Sure, that’s why I’m here.” He stood, the legs of his chair scraping against the linoleum. Before Hikari could protest, Takeru took the seat next to her, turning his body in her direction. She tried not to think about how his knees nearly grazed the hem of her skirt or the teakwood scent of his shampoo. “But first, another question.”

With heated cheeks, Hikari turned her attention to Takeru, pulse thrumming erratically in her veins. “Do you really have to ask questions every time? At this point, I would prefer the hot sauce.” 

He only laughed, leaning in a bit closer, his breath fanning across Hikari’s face.  “Would you, now?” If he noticed the way she shivered underneath his gaze, Takeru didn’t comment on it, instead busying himself with notating the correct solution on the worksheet. 

Once he was finished, he turned his face towards her, a singular eyebrow raised. “Do you have any questions before I ask one of my own?”

Numbly, Hikari shook her head. Her assignment had been adorned with little arrows and smiley faces, rewarding her for the aspects she had gotten correct. 

If it were possible, Takeru invaded her space further,  the corners of his mouth tilted upwards. “Who was your first kiss?” 

Eyes wide as saucers, Hikari stared blankly at Takeru’s smirk. The heat of embarrassment crawled up her neck, staining the tips of her ears. Subconsciously, her teeth bit at her bottom lip, anxiously searching for an answer, to make up a name that sounded reasonable enough to be the truth. 

“Hmm, cat’s got your tongue?” He teased, leaning back to give Hikari some space. “Or,” he paused, “Could it be that you’ve never been kissed?”

Though his tone had been light, teasing even, Hikari’s mouth opened and shut to no avail. Heart hammering in her ears, she averted her gaze. 

At sixteen-years-old, Hikari had yet to hold any serious relationships. Plenty of boys had gone through the effort of confessing, their anxious smiles and trembling hands worming their way into Hikari’s heart. But their dates had never led to anything substantial, her mind always drifting back to a pair of mischievous, blue eyes.

The same pair of eyes bore into her own, seeking the answer to his question.

Her silence must have been answer enough. 

“Taichi Yagami’s little sister had never been kissed? Why are we focusing on math where there appears to be a bigger problem right under our noses?”

Tears pricked at her eyes, her mouth morphing into a delicate frown. “Stop laughing at me.” 

Gripping her pencil with white knuckles, Hikari turned back to her homework, the problems blurring together.

He reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Lucky for you,” Takeru’s reassuring voice washed over her,  “I’m a firm believer that every problem must have a solution. How should we solve this one?”

A gasp flew from her lips, her body reflexively turning towards his. “Take-”

His name was lost on her lips, Takeru’s mouth pressing gently onto her own. Mustering up any bit of courage she could find, Hikari kissed him back, her hands resting hesitantly on his shoulders.

All too soon, Takeru pulled away, cheek tinged pink. “I think,” he paused, catching his breath, “That a kiss qualifies as a reward. Let’s see if you can get the next problem right.”