𝙎𝙮𝙣𝙤𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙨: 𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙆𝙉𝘽 𝙗𝙤𝙮𝙨 𝙨𝙩𝙪𝙙𝙮 𝙩𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧.
𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙁𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙙: 𝙈𝙞𝙙𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙢𝙖, 𝘼𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙚, 𝙆𝙞𝙨𝙚, 𝙆𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙞, 𝙆𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙠𝙤, 𝙈𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙖𝙠𝙞𝙗𝙖𝙧𝙖, 𝘼𝙠𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙞
When you’d asked Midorima for help with one homework problem you hadn’t quite expected to still be sitting at your desk two hours later. It had started calm and innocent.
You’d wandered into the living room, textbook tucked beneath your arm, only to find your boyfriend reviewing a stack of medical texts with his glasses sitting straightly on his nose.
Without looking up from the page, he hummed in acknowledgment.
“I need help with one question.” He then turned to look at you. Very straightforwardly he asked.
You nodded with an eager smile. Happy to finally be finished with this. Your boyfriend was too level smart, so this should take no time. He closed the journal, carefully marking his place before gesturing toward the seat across from him.
You the textbook across the table and sat besides him. You pointed to the problem that had been tormenting you for the better part of an hour.
Midorima studied the page in silence.
“Have you reviewed the chapter?”
A nervous smile like you'd been caught doing something you weren't supposed to appeared on your face.
“That was not the question.”
You let out an awkward laugh.
He adjusted his glasses before calmly pushing the textbook back toward you.
“Read page one hundred and forty two.”
“I thought you were gonna explain it.”
“I intend to.” His expression remained perfectly composed.
“But if I explain the answer before you’ve understood the concept, you will only memorize the solution.”
With a defeated sigh, you opened the textbook and began reading.
Five minutes later, Midorima looked up from his notes.
“What is the definition?”
“The one you have just read.”
You looked back at the page.
“This is why Takao never asks you for anything study related..."
He chose to ignore that comment.
The next thirty minutes were spent going over the chapter from the very beginning.
Every time you made a mistake, Midorima didn’t correct it immediately.
Instead, he’d simply ask another question.
“Why did you choose that equation?”
“Read the question once more.”
“It still doesn’t make sense.”
“Then read it a third time.”
Little by little, the pieces began falling into place. Not because he gave you the answers. Instead it was because he somehow always knew the exact question that would lead you to them.
By the time you solved the original problem on your own, you couldn’t hide the grin spreading across your face.
Midorima looked over your work, his eyes scanning each step with practiced precision.
“Correct. You've succeeded in finding the answer."
You beamed with excitement.
"Thank you so much Shin." You said as you kissed him on his cheek, causing the man's face to redden.
"By the way. I have way more problems you could help me with."
For the first time, he smiled.
"Gather them. I have time."
Satsuki Momoi had officially given up.
For the past hour, she’d done everything she could think of to help Aomine. She’d rewritten the equations, drawn diagrams, made color coded notes.
She’d even bribed Aomine with hamburgers.
“Are you even listening?”
Aomine, who'd managed to balance his chair on their two legs for the past ten minutes, lazily glanced up from the ceiling.
“You’ve been staring at the fan.”
“Cause it’s more interesting than your blabbering Satsuki." She pouted in annoyance.
“And it spins.” Aomine added.
She inhaled slowly then exhaled.
“I’m going to lose my mind.”
With one final glare directed toward the Aomine, she snatched her phone off the table.
“There is one person left.”
Aomine finally looked interested.
“The only person I’ve ever seen you willingly listen to.”
“You're seriously not talking about my girl are yo-Satsuki!"
Your apartment was unusually quiet.
Stacks of journals and highlighted lecture notes covered nearly every inch of your dining table, evidence of the exam season that had consumed most of your life over the past several weeks.
You’d barely finished reviewing one chapter when your phone rang.
You answered almost immediately.
“Hey Satsuki. Everything alright?”
The urgency in her voice can be heard with her words.
You said, you heard Aomine protesting in the background, so you figured it had something to do with him.
“I’ve been trying to teach Daiki algebra for an hour.”
“I don’t even think he knows I’m in the room.”
A small laugh escaped you.
“I’m serious!” She exclaimed.
“He just keeps looking everywhere except the paper.”
You smiled to yourself, already able to picture the scene.
There was a brief pause before Momoi sighed dramatically.
You glanced down at the mountain of college assignments waiting for you and at the clock.
You still had plenty left to finish yet you couldn’t bring yourself to refuse.
Relief practically exploded through the speaker.
“Really?!” She asked happily.
“You are literally saving my life.”
You laughed softly before ending the call.
Gathering your notebooks into your bag, you quietly muttered to yourself,
“I wonder how badly this is going.”
When you arrived at the gymnasium nearly thirty minutes later…
The answer became immediately apparent.
Satsuki sat with her head resting against the desk, looking as though she’d aged several years. Across from her, Aomine was absentmindedly spinning a pencil between his fingers, looking completely unbothered.
The moment he noticed you standing in the doorway. his entire posture changed.
His lazy grin appeared almost instantly.
“I heard someone was struggling.”
He rubbed the back of his neck.
Satsuki slowly lifted her head from the desk.
“I’ve been explaining the same problem for over an hour.”
You glanced down at the notebook and immediately knew what the problem was.
“You’re starting in the wrong place.”
Both of them looked at you.
“You’ve been teaching him how to solve it…”
You turned the notebook around before drawing a small circle around the very first line of the question.
“But he doesn’t understand what the question is asking.”
Aomine looked down at the page.
“Let’s forget the formula for a second.”
Pulling another sheet of paper toward yourself, you drew a quick sketch instead.
“Imagine you’re playing basketball…”
Almost immediately Aomine leaned forward.
He was actually paying attention.
And within fifteen minutes, he’d solved the problem entirely on his own.
Aomine looked down at his notebook before glancing back up at you.
“That actually made sense.”
Across the table, Satsuki buried her face in her hands.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“What?" He asked confused as to what she could be groaning about. He was getting the hang of it after all. Wasn't that what she wanted?
“I’ve been trying to explain that for an hour!”
You couldn’t help but laugh.
“It’s not that he can’t learn.”
You looked over at your boyfriend.
“He just doesn’t like being taught.”
Aomine shrugged, flashing that familiar lazy grin."
“Guess I only listen to my girl.”
Satsuki groaned dramatically.
“I’m never tutoring you again.”
Your phone buzzed just as you were highlighting another paragraph in your biology textbook.
Ryo 💛: Movie tonight? I haven’t seen you all week :(
A smile tugged at your lips despite of the tiredness due to the studying.
You: I don’t think I can…
The reply came almost instantly.
You sighed, glancing around your room. It was an absolute mess. There was multiple flash cards littered the floor, sticky notes clinging to your bedroom wall and three different textbooks sat open on your desk, each bookmarked at a different chapter.
Finals were a week away and you couldn't afford to fail.
You: there's tm to study ryoo :((
Ryo 💛: How much is “too much?”
You couldn’t help but laugh.
You: Enough that if I leave this room, I might fail my final with the worst grade possible.
You answered with a puzzled smile.
His cheerful voice filled the speaker immediately.
“So…” he began. “Who said we have to cancel?”
“A date’s a date, right?”
“So let’s make it a study date!”
“Mhm!” he replied enthusiastically. “We’ll go to that café you like, order something to eat, study together, and then when we’re done…” He paused dramatically. “we can still call it a date.”
You couldn’t help but smile.
“That doesn’t really sound romantic.” He pouted.
His answer came so quickly that it caught you off guard.
“I don’t really care what we’re doing.”
There was a brief pause before he laughed softly.
“I just wanna spend time with you babe I miss youuuu.”
Your shoulders relaxed almost instantly.
The stress that had been weighing on you all day seemed just a little lighter.
His excitement was audible.
“But,” you warned, “we’re actually studying.”
“Okay,” he admitted with a sheepish laugh. “Maybe a little.”
An hour later, the two of you occupied a quiet corner table in your favorite café.
Textbooks, notebooks, flashcards, and two steaming drinks covered nearly every inch of the table. To anyone passing by, you looked less like a couple on a date and more like two students preparing for battle.
Kise rested his chin in his hand as he skimmed over a page of notes.
“You know..."he murmured after a while.
“I think this is my favorite date we’ve had.”
You looked up from your notebook.
He nodded with his pretty smile. It was so warm and effortless. And it always brightened up the room.
“You look really cute when you’re concentrating.”
Heat crept into your cheeks.
“And you’re distracting me.”
He laughed quietly before returning to his notes without another word.
For nearly twenty minutes, neither of you spoke. The only sounds between you were the turning of pages, the scratching of pencils, and the clink of coffee cups against the table.
Every now and then, one of you would ask a question.
“What did you get for number six?”
“Did I explain this theorem right?”
“Quiz me on these terms.”
Without either of you realizing it, studying stopped feeling like a chore. It simply became another way to spend time together. Some couples went to amusement parks and some went to fancy restaurants.
You spent the afternoon quizzing each other over coffee, stealing cookies from the same plate, and arguing over whose handwriting was worse.
And somehow it ended up being one of the best dates you’d ever had.
The original plan had been simple.
Kagami would ask you for help with one chapter of algebra, the two of you would spend an hour at the library, and he’d leave with at least a decent amount of understanding before his exam.
But of course the plan went wrong.
“Why are all of you here..?”
Your eyes slowly looked across the private study room, only to find nearly the entire Seirin basketball team occupying every available chair. Hyuga sat with a coffee in one hand and a textbook in the other, Kiyosh was causally sitting there with a bunch of snacks, ready to fuel anyone's brain, Izuki was quietly reviewing notes as though he’d actually come to study, Koganei, Kawahara, Fukuda and Furihata were whispering over a practice quiz, Mitobe sat quietly reading a book and Kuroko remained tucked into the corner with a novel resting comfortably in his hands. The only person who looked remotely uncomfortable was Kagami, who scratched awkwardly at the back of his neck as though he’d somehow forgotten to mention one very important detail.
“I only asked if you’d help me study,” he muttered.
“I can see that.” You slowly turned back toward him, one eyebrow raised. “What I don’t understand is why your entire team apparently decided this was a group activity.”
Hyuga didn’t even bother looking up from his coffee. “Extra support .”
“Extra support?” You looked at him as you folded your arms with a raised eyebrow.
“If this idiot fails his exams,” he said as he pointed his cup toward Kagami, “he doesn’t play.."
A quiet snort escaped Izuki. “Think of us as emotional support.”
“You mean academic support,” Koganei corrected
“No.” Hyuga sighed. “There’s no supporting him academically.”
Kagami clicked his tongue. “Man, screw you guys.”
Despite yourself, a small laugh escaped your lips as you slid into the chair across from him. Setting your backpack on the table, you held your hand out expectantly.
“Alright then.” You smiled. “Let me see the damage.” Kagami confidently slid his worksheet across the table as though there wasn’t a single thing wrong with it.
For one brief, hopeful moment, you genuinely believed everyone had exaggerated. Then you looked at the first page and your smile slowly disappeared.
You looked back down at the paper. Then back at him. Then, without another word, you reached across the table, grabbed both of his ears, and gave them a firm twist.
Kagami nearly shot out of his chair, instinctively grabbing your wrists while the rest of Seirin stared in complete disbelief.
“Do you seriously have basketballs for brains?!” you exclaimed, refusing to let go. “The question very clearly said subtract, you big headed buffoon!”
“YOU DIDN’T SEE THE BIG FAT MINUS SIGN?!”
“I don't know!? It was hiding!!"
“It was in the middle of the page!”
“The MINUS SIGN blended in?”
Around the table, complete silence settled for exactly three seconds.
“She got him by the ears.”
Koganei blinked several times, sounding almost impressed.
“She really got him by the ears.”
Furihata slowly lowered his pencil.
"She hangs out a bit too much with Riko don't you think..."
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone do that and live.” Izuki rested his chin on his hand, watching the scene unfold with mild amusement.
“I’d say he’s all ears now!"
“Or at least he was before she started stretching them.”
Hyuga let out a weary sigh.
Kuroko quietly looked up from the novel resting in his hands, his expression as unreadable as ever.
“Kagami appears to be receiving the correction he neglected to give himself.”
Kiyoshi, meanwhile, simply laughed, leaning comfortably against the back of his chair.
“I was wondering how long it’d take before she did that."
“You were expecting this?!” Hyuga asked.
“Y/N and Riko do hang out a lot. What would you expect."
Across the table, Kagami finally managed to pry your hands away from his ears, rubbing them dramatically.
“You’re such a pain in my ass.”
“Oh, I’m the pain?” You pointed accusingly at his worksheet. “Taiga, you looked at a subtraction problem and thought, ‘You know what? Addition sounds better.’”
“When you say it like that, I sound dumb.”
“Then explain your answer.”
A triumphant grin spread across your face as you folded your arms.
Kagami muttered something under his breath before slumping farther into his chair, cheeks faintly pink from equal parts embarrassment and annoyance.
“You’re lucky you’re good at explaining this stuff.” The words slipped out before he could stop them. You blinked.
A mischievous smile slowly tugged at the corners of your lips.
“You just complimented me.”
“Which just so happens to be a compliment.”
Kagami buried his face in his hands.
“I should’ve just failed.”
Spring had quietly fall over Seirin.
Warm sunlight shone through the leaves of the cherry blossom trees, painting the pathways patches of light and shadow. Every so often, a gentle breeze would sweep through the branches above, carrying with it a shower of pale pink petals that flew to the ground. It was peaceful.
Perhaps that was why you always found yourself returning to the same sakura tree whenever examinations began to overwhelm you. With your back resting against its sturdy trunk, notebook on your lap and a pencil that stayed in your hand as you traced out the question you've been looking at for the past 20 minutes.
“How does any of this make sense?”
A quiet sigh escaped your lips as you rubbed your temples. Maybe one more chapter and it will finally piece together.
You had barely convinced yourself to continue when the grass shifted softly nearby. You smiled before even looking up.
The footsteps came to a stop.
For a brief moment, there was only silence.
Then, a small smile tugged at Kuroko’s lips.
He lowered himself onto the grass beside you? placing a his current novel across his lap before glancing toward the textbook on your lap.
“You seem to be having trouble.”
You let out a quiet laugh.
“The amount of erase marks on the paper."
“And the expression on your face.”
“Was it that obvious?” You asked with an awkward smile.
You groaned softly before letting your head fall back against the tree.
“I’ve been reading the same page for almost twenty minutes.”
Kuroko’s gaze drifted toward the highlighted paragraph.
A faint chuckle escaped him.
“I don’t believe textbooks are capable of malice.”
“It would be an interesting exception.”
Another breeze swept through the branches overhead, causing the cherry blossoms to cascade between the two of you.
For several quiet moments, neither of you spoke.
Kuroko opened his novel and you returned to your notes.
The silence wasn’t awkward..
It was silence that only existed between two people who had spent enough time together to understand that conversation wasn’t always necessary.
Eventually, you let out another defeated sigh.
He looked up from his book almost immediately.
You hesitated for only a moment before turning your notebook toward him.
"Do you think you could explain this?”
Your voice grew a little quieter.
“I’ve been trying to understand it all morning.”
Without a word, Kuroko shifted closer. His shoulder slightly touched yours as he looked down at the page.
He studied it for a moment before gently pointing to a single sentence.
His voice remained as soft as ever.
“You’re making it more complicated than it needs to be.”
His finger traced back to a diagram on the previous page.
“If you understand this first…”
“The rest becomes much easier.”
You found yourself watching him instead of the textbook.
The way he spoke so patiently.
The way he never made you feel embarrassed for asking questions.
The way he always seemed to explain things as though the answer had been within your reach all along.
“I believe you’re looking at me.”
Heat immediately rushed to your cheeks as you quickly looked back down at your notebook.
A small smile appeared on Kuroko’s face, so subtle most people would’ve missed it.
The tips of his own ears had turned the faintest shade of pink.
Neither of you mentioned it.
Instead, beneath the gentle shower of falling cherry blossoms, the two of you quietly returned to studying both pretending to focus on the pages in front of you, while secretly wondering if the other had noticed how fast your heart had begun to beat.
If someone wanted to find you during finals week, they never really had to search very hard. You were always hidden away in some quiet corner of the library, tucked beneath a tree with a mountain of textbooks surrounding you. The only way you'd ever leave was when the staff politely reminded you the building was about to close. Studying had long since become less of a hobby and more of a routine you couldn’t seem to break.Unfortunately you had been having a lot of problems when it came to eating.
It was never intentional. You’d tell yourself you were only going to finish one more chapter before grabbing lunch. Then that chapter would remind you of another topic you still needed to review, which led to another set of flashcards, another practice quiz, another page of notes. And before you realized it, the sun had already begun to set. By then your stomach would be growling loud enough for nearby students to hear, your neck would ache from hunching over a desk all day, and the moment you finally made it home, exhaustion would win before dinner ever had a chance.
Murasakibara had noticed that habit long before you had.
It wasn’t something you’d ever mentioned aloud, nor had he questioned you about it. He simply just noticed. Every afternoon he’d wander through campus with another bag of snacks tucked beneath his arm, only to find you sitting in the exact same position he’d seen you in hours earlier, completely absorbed in your textbooks while the untouched lunch you’d bought that morning sat forgotten beside you.
The first few times, he’d simply sighed before setting one of his snacks in front of you. Eventually, that wasn’t enough.
One afternoon he found you exactly where he’d expected in the library, surrounded by enough notebooks to occupy half the table. Your pencil moved quickly across the page, barely slowing as you highlighted another sentence. You didn’t even notice him until something cold bumped gently against your elbow. Blinking, you looked up. A strawberry milk rested beside your notebook.
Standing over you was Murasakibara, lazily chewing on a stick of Pocky and simply stated
“You forgot lunch again.”
You glanced around the library before looking back at the clock hanging on the far wall.
“Oh god I didn't even realize.."
It was already nearly four in the afternoon.
You laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of your neck.
“I was gonna eat after I finished this chapter.."
He nodded as if humoring a child who’d just made a promise clearly crossing their fingers behind their backs.
“You’re still not gonna eat.”
Without another word, he placed a neatly wrapped sandwich directly on top of the page you’d been reading.
You stared at it then at him.
“I need to pass my finals.”
The simplicity of his answer made you smile despite yourself. There wasn’t a single lecture about taking care of yourself. No dramatic speech about work life balance. It was just a reminder that eating isn't optional. You sighed as you finally reached for the sandwich.
He looked oddly satisfied watching you take the first bite before plopping himself into the chair across from you. Pulling out an enormous bag of chips from seemingly nowhere, he opened it with a quiet crunch and began snacking while you returned to your notes.
Neither of you spoke for several minutes.
You studied while he ate. Every now and then he’d glance up, making sure you hadn’t secretly gone back to ignoring your food. When you finally closed your textbook. You stared at him as he took a nap on the desk. With a small smile. You gently got up from your seat and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek and whispered
"Thank you for caring about me."
The tutoring sessions gradually became a part of both of your schedules. Every Tuesday and Thursday without fail, the two of you were always seated in the same corner of the library, near the large windows where the afternoon sunlight poured over stacks of textbooks and unfinished worksheets. At first, your conversations rarely ventured beyond mathematics and chemistry. Akashi would explain a concept, you’d ask a question, and he’d ask another in return until you arrived at the answer yourself. It was efficient, exactly the way he’d intended it to be. Yet as the weeks passed, those conversations slowly drifted away from the pages in front of you. Somewhere between solving equations and reviewing practice exams, little habits began to reveal themselves. He learned the way you absentmindedly doodled little flowers in the margins of your notebook whenever you became frustrated. You learned he preferred tea over coffee because he disliked how bitter coffee tasted without sugar. He realized you apologized far too often, even for things that weren’t your fault, and you realized the intimidating student council president everyone admired possessed an incredible amount of patience whenever someone genuinely wanted to learn. No wonder so many people liked and respected him. Before either of you realized it, the tutoring sessions slowly stopped feeling like tutoring. They simply became the favorite part of your week.
“Good afternoon, Akashi!” you greeted him with a bright smile as you hurried toward the table, slightly out of breath from practically rushing there. Before you even had the chance to pull your chair out, he calmly observed, “You’ve arrived eight minutes earlier than usual.”
You froze halfway through setting your backpack down.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
“I didn’t think you would.”
“I notice a lot of things.”
You lowered your head, pretending to organize your notebooks so he wouldn’t notice the little smile tugging at your lips.
Unfortunately for you Akashi noticed almost immediately.
It wasn’t particularly difficult to notice.
You smiled differently around him.
Even the way your shoulders relaxed after sitting down had become something he unconsciously expected every time the two of you met. He had begun recognizing these little habits weeks ago, though he never mentioned them aloud. There was something oddly pleasant about simply observing them. You were expressive in ways he found refreshing. Every emotion found its way onto your face long before you ever voiced it, making you remarkably easy to read despite how desperately you seemed to hide your feelings.
Your crush, on the other hand, was anything but difficult to identify.
Whenever your fingers accidentally brushed against his while reaching for the same pencil, you’d immediately pull your hand back and apologize three separate times. Whenever he complimented your work, you’d become so flustered you could barely hold your pencil correctly for the next several minutes. Even now, after nearly a month of tutoring together, you still struggled to maintain eye contact for more than a few seconds before your gaze wandered somewhere toward the table.
He had known for quite some time.
There was an innocence to the way you wore your emotions. You never intended to reveal them, yet they always found a way to surface regardless. Every compliment left you flustered. Every accidental brush of your hands had you apologizing before he’d even registered the contact himself. More than once, he’d watched you completely lose your train of thought simply because he’d looked at you a moment longer than usual.
That realization amused him far more than it probably should have.
There was something charming about the way you’d convince yourself he hadn’t noticed, only to become hopelessly embarrassed whenever he acknowledged the smallest detail about you. Watching your carefully maintained composure quietly unravel had become one of his favorite parts of those afternoons.
He never intended to embarrass you.
He simply found himself unable to resist offering the occasional remark, fully aware of the reaction it would earn. Not because he wished to make you uncomfortable, but because, in those moments when your carefully maintained composure disappeared, you became unmistakably yourself. And Akashi found that version of you very attractive.
Somewhere between the afternoons spent across a library table, unfinished worksheets, and cups of tea that had long since grown cold, the purpose of those tutoring sessions had quietly changed. He had agreed to improve your grades.
He simply hadn’t anticipated that, in the process...you would capture his heart as well.
