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“Aw, Kami, really?” Eijirou says over the phone. “I thought you were doing better in class?”
“Yeah, I thought I was too.” Denki scoffs. He frowns at the big, red F in the middle of his English exam paper. He didn’t even know professors still did that in college. “I went into the exam really confident, too, man. I don’t wanna have to retake this class.”
“I’m sorry, bro, maybe you can reach out to the professor and see if they’ll let you retake it? You said you were confident, maybe it’s just test-taking anxiety.”
Denki gives the paper one last forlorn look before dropping it on his desk and flopping back into his bed. “I don’t know, Ei. I know he’s a good friend of yours, but I don’t think this tutoring thing is going to work out. I mean, it’s almost halfway through the semester…”
“Tetsu’s a good guy, Denki.”
“Yeah, he’s a great guy. But not a great English tutor. I think I’m going to have to find someone new before I fail this–”
“Wait, wait! Before you make any… hasty decisions. Just– meet with him one more time, explain what happened, maybe he’ll have an explanation for where you went wrong on the test?” Eijirou sounds hopeful, which makes Denki a little confused. He gets the guy is Eijirou’s best friend, but this is Denki’s grade they’re talking about.
Tetsutetsu Tetstutetsu (Katsuki thinks it’s a stupid name, Denki thinks it’s great) is a cool guy, really cool. He’s funny, kind, and really patient with Denki when he’s trying to help him understand English. He even doodles little cartoons on the margins of Denki's notes whenever he's explaining something complicated. Not to mention, he’s extremely athletic, which is super attractive to Denki, with his silver hair, long eyelashes, and broad shoulders.
Denki doesn’t have a type, but if he did, it would be “people who could throw him over their shoulders like a sack of rice.” Tetsutetsu is super passionate about everything, which Denki finds endearing. Denki has to be extremely careful about not flirting with him during their tutoring sessions, which is extremely hard because he’s been known to flirt with anything that walks on two legs, breathes through their lungs, and has opposable thumbs.
So, it really sucks that evidence shows that Tetsutetsu is not a good tutor, because Denki doesn’t think the silver-haired man would hang out with him outside of an academic setting. Unfortunately, the papers marked with a failing grade sitting on his desk tell Denki that he needs to break up with the guy.
“I don’t know…”
“Denks, please? Just promise me you’ll see him one time before you find a new tutor.”
“Geez, man. Yeah, I will, I’m not heartless.” Denki laughs, “Man, you’re dramatic, it's just tutoring.”
“Haha, yeah man, you’re right. Just tutoring.”
Eijirou finishes his goodbyes over the phone and sits down on the couch with a heavy sigh.
Not looking up from his book, Katsuki asks, “That was Kaminari?”
Eijirou rubs a hand over his face. “Yeah.”
“He still hasn’t realized Tetsutetsu isn’t actually a tutor?”
“Nope.”
“And Tetsutetsu’s still too scared to tell him the truth, stop wasting all of our time, and ask him out?”
“Yup.”
Katsuki snickers, “They’re both idiots.”
“Yup.”
“They’re made for each other.”
Eijirou sighs, “Yup.”
Katsuki sighs back and flips to the next page.
Denki listened to Eijirou and texted Tetsutetsu to meet up. He felt bad, really. But his English wasn’t improving at all, and something had to be done.
He hopes he and Tetsutetsu will still wave to each other when they cross paths on campus.
When his professor (not English) dismisses class at 11:50 on the dot, he grabs his bag and makes the trek across campus to the library. Checking his phone to see if Tetsu is still able to meet him, he’s relieved to see a text from the boy letting him know he’s on the way there.
From: tetsutetsu ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
Hey, i’m walking to the library now, will prly beat u there (11:45 A.M.)
To: tetsutetsu ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
hii! (11:50 A.M.)
just got out of class (11:50 A.M.)
walking ur way now!!! ⊂(・ヮ・⊂) (11:51 A.M.)
From: tetsutetsu ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
👍(11:51 A.M.)
When Denki makes it to the library, Tetsutetsu is already sitting in their usual spot. He waves, and the larger man gives him a smile, cheeks tinted their usual pink. As he approaches the table, he sees the snacks lying on the table and his heart clenches.
Tetsutetsu always made sure to bring snacks to their sessions after they had first met because Denki always had a hard time focusing if he didn’t eat (which he routinely forgot to do).
Maybe Denki didn’t really need to break things off with Tetsutetsu; he’s sure he could at least scrape a C- to survive the semester.
Denki shook his head to rid himself of the ridiculous thought. No. No matter how charming or thoughtful or handsome Tetsutetsu was, he wasn't going to sacrifice his grade in this class.
“Tetsutetsu, hi!” Denki greets the man cheerfully. “Thanks for the Pocky! I totally need it after the super boring class I just had. I’m sooo drained, I need to recharge badly.”
Denki sticks a Pocky stick in his mouth, and Tetsutetsu smiles at him, putting sharp teeth on display.
“It’s no problem, Kaminari.” He mumbles, and Denki pouts.
“I told you to call me, Denki, Tetsutetsu, or at least Kami.”
“Well, you can at least call me Tetsu,” The other man says, “It might not be much of a nickname since my full name is eight repeated syllables. But still.” He chuckles, and Denki smiles brightly.
“Okay, Tetsu!”
Tetsu blushes and clears his throat, turning to his backpack, “Good, so what did you want to meet for? Was there something you needed to go over or–?”
“Oh, right!” Denki completely forgot. He pulls the exam papers out of his bag and presents them to Tetsu. “Well, I had this test and it didn’t go so well. And look, Tetsu, you’re great, really, but I don’t think this is working out.”
Tetsu looks over the papers, swallowing. There were correction marks on almost every other question. “Shit, Kaminari– Denki… I’m sorry. I–”
“No!” Denki interrupts. “It’s okay. It’s not entirely your fault. I’ve never been an A-student. It was stupid for me to even think that I would be remotely good at another language. I can barely speak Japanese correctly. I wasted both of our time.”
Tetsu frowns, biting his lip at Denki’s self-deprecating laugh. It was now or never.
“Denki, wait.” He grabs the blond boy’s arm. “That’s not true. You’re not stupid. Honestly, this was all my fault.”
“Tetsu, please don’t try to take the blame for my lack of intelligence. I’m used to not getting things the first time… or the second or third or fourth. Please don’t feel bad, Tetsutetsu.”
“But, I do feel bad.”
“Why?”
Tetsu runs his hand over his face, then looks at Denki guiltily. Denki’s eyebrows furrow in confusion, “Tetsu?”
“I’mnotreallyatutor.”
“...What?”
Tetsu sighs, “I’m not really a tutor, Denki. I just had Eijirou tell you I was so I could help you out, so I could be around you.”
“I don’t– I don’t understand, why would you–?”
Tetsu rubs the back of his neck, offering an awkward smile, “Denki, I like you.”
Denki short circuits, “You–? Me–? I don’t–” He couldn’t have heard Tetsu correctly. Likes?
“Ha… I guess you’re confused.” Denki nods dumbly.
“Well, when I first saw you–well, heard you, when you were hanging out with Eijirou and Bakugo in the student union. You laughed, and it was so bright and bubbly and warm. Then I saw you— and it didn’t help that you were also like, the prettiest guy I ever saw. I had to know who you were. I tried to ask Eijirou about you, y’know, casually, but I think Katsuki was on to me instantly. He told me to man up and ask you out, but after Eijirou told me about you— how easygoing and outgoing you were— I couldn’t work up the courage to approach you.
“I know that’s ridiculous because I’m supposed to be this confident guy, but I don’t know, I just didn’t think a guy as likeable and pretty as you would be interested in someone like me. Then, Eijirou was telling me how you were having trouble with English, and I begged him to give you my information for tutoring, even though I had no experience in tutoring whatsoever. I feel terrible, Denki. Believe me, I never meant to waste the past few weeks like this, but I kept hoping I'd get the guts to say something.
“I know my confession is at best ill-timed and at worst, extremely inappropriate, but you deserve to know the truth. I really am sorry.”
Tetsu’s confession hung in the air. Neither boy says anything for a long moment.
Finally, Denki spoke, “Well, I guess I’m kind of a dumbass for not seeing it, huh?”
“What?” Tetsu says, “What do you mean?”
“I mean, it was pretty obvious when I asked you when to use ‘who’ versus ‘whom’ and you said ‘well, what do you think?’” Denki grins at the other man’s shocked expression.
“You– Denki– what?”
“I’m not mad, Tetsu, honest,” Denki says truthfully, grin turning into a more genuine smile. “I probably should be, but, for some reason, I can’t help but find it extremely endearing that you went to these lengths just to be around lil ol’ me.”
A shocked laugh bubbles out of Tetsu, “This is pretty embarrassing, huh?” Denki nodded in response, eyes crinkling. Tetsu groans, “Ugh, I’m such a loser.”
“No, you’re not. I actually happen to think you’re very charming, Tetsu. And even though I’m failing miserably at English, I’d like to accept your confession. If you’ll still have me.”
“R-Really?!”
“Yes, really! I thought you were hot, too, man. Do you know how hard it was not to flirt with you during our sessions? I had to physically restrain myself from dropping my pencil under the table so I could bend over so you would look at my ass.”
Bright red, Tetsu blurts, “Why do you think I always let you walk ahead of me?!”
Denki throws his head back, cackles echoing loudly in the quiet library. “Ohmygod, Tetsu, I wish you had told me earlier, we could’ve been making out in between the bookcases weeks ago.”
“Denkiii,” Tetsu whines, covering his face. “Please don’t make fun of me right now, I’m getting crazy emotional whiplash right now.”
“Sorry, I’m sorry.” Denki’s laughter turned into quiet giggles as he wiped tears from his eyes. He leaned into Tetsu’s space, pulling the boy’s hand off his face. “Just so it’s clear, I like you too, Tetsu. And I really wanna go out on a date with you, even if you are the reason I’m failing English 101.”
Tetsu’s sharp teeth were exposed again as he grinned. “Really?”
“Yeah. I wanna walk around campus holding hands, I want to eat lunch together when our schedules match up, I want to show you how I decorated my dorm, I want to see how you decorated yours, I want to kiss you when we go our separate ways on the way to class. I want to do all that corny couple shit with you.”
“Will you wear my jersey on game days?”
“If that’s what couples do, hell yeah.”
Tetsu smiles so hard that Denki thought his teeth would draw blood. “Awesome.”
Denki giggles, “So, you gonna kiss me after all that or what?”
“Hell yeah.”
Denki grins as Tetsu leans in to press their lips together. He hums and rests his hands on Tetsu’s shoulders, the other boy’s hand coming to rest on his hips. They kiss a little more before Denki breaks off into giggles again, Tetsu following soon after.
Denki pulls back, hands still resting on Tetsu’s shoulders, “You know I actually came here to tell you that I needed to find a new tutor?”
“Hey, babe? Tetsu just texted me, looks like he and Denki worked things out!”
“Good news, babe! Denki wasn’t mad at all, really.”
“They’re going on a date this weekend, babe!”
“Hey, babe? Denki’s going to need a new tutor.”
“Denki’s having a hard time finding someone new. I feel bad, babe.”
“Hey, babe… Didn’t you get an A plus in English 202?”