Work Text:
"I'm sorry for leaving this all so late!" Tohru fretted, indicating the substantial spread of worksheets on the table. "I hadn't realised it was so much!"
"It's no trouble at all, Honda-san." Yuki smiled earnestly, taking out a pen. "You've been working a lot lately, and it slipped my mind too." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Besides, I wanted to do it together."
Tohru rewarded this confession with a sunny smile, and pounded a fist against the surface of the table.
"Alright! If we work together, we can achieve anything! Let's do it!"
Five minutes later, Tohru found herself rereading a question for the fourth time, holding her hand in her hands. She looked over at her study partner in trepidation, and called;
"Yuki?"
"Hm?" He said distractedly, before looking up in surprise, catching himself. "I'm sorry. Did you have a question, Honda-san?"
"Yes," she replied, sounding defeated. "Can you please explain number three part two? I don't even know where to start."
Yuki hesitated, before shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, but I don't understand it either." He admitted, glancing down apologetically. "This topic has actually been giving me a lot of trouble." He lapsed into silence, staring blankly at the paper in front of him, and after watching him for a few moments, Tohru placed a hand on his shoulder. Yuki turned, surprise in his eyes.
"I'm sure with both of us working together, we can figure it out. So let's keep trying, okay?"
It was a full ten minutes later when Yuki let out a small noise of surprise, and set the textbook he'd been pouring over down so that Tohru could see it.
"Did you find something?" She asked eagerly, leaning into him for a better look.
"Here." He indicated the relevant line with a tap of his finger. "We can substitute this equation into the other one-" He pointed to the note Tohru had made on a piece of scrap paper, "You were right, we were supposed to use it."
"And then we have everything we need!" Tohru said excitedly, seizing her pen and immediately scribbling the new information down.
"What about this though?" Yuki asked, gesturing to a segment of the question. "I don't understand what it's referencing-"
"It's the same thing!" Tohru exclaimed, delighted to be of help.
"I'm sorry?"
"It's just a reiteration of what was said at the start of the question. I know it looks like a different quantity altogether, but I asked after class and it's just another way of expressing the same thing." She informed him, and comprehension dawned on his face. He held a hand to his forehead, enlightened.
"Of course, that makes so much sense." He flashed her a grateful look. "Thank you, Honda-san."
At eleven o' clock, Tohru sat back, interlacing her fingers and stretching her arms out.
"I can't believe we're done!" She sighed happily. "It was so much, I wondered if we'd ever do it all. But it feels good to accomplish something like that."
"I couldn't have done it without you, Honda-san. I'd never have thought to look at number eleven that way." She smiled, visibly embarrassed.
"I couldn't have done it without you either! I guess that makes us a team, huh?"
Now it was Yuki's turn to smile.
"I guess it does. But honestly," he mused, gaze drifting back to their completed work. "Doing it with you... actually made it fun."
Tohru opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a fierce yawn.
"Excuse me!" She laughed at herself, a little dizzily. "I should probably call it a night." She got to her feet, and Yuki followed suit.
"Goodnight Yuki."
"Goodnight Honda-san." He inclined his head slightly, and she turned to leave, but before she entered the hall, he called after her. "Wait-"
She paused in the doorway, tilting her head curiously. Yuki cleared his throat.
"I just- if you wanted to look over this stuff again this weekend..." He began awkwardly. "I'd be happy to. I'm not sure I've absorbed everything yet, myself."
"Sure!" Came the cheerful reply. "How about Saturday afternoon?"
He nodded, conscious of a peculiar, sunlit warmth spreading through his veins.
"Saturday afternoon it is, then! Goodnight, Yuki." With that, she disappeared around the corner, leaving Yuki standing alone in his room.
"Goodnight, Tohru."