Roses Are Red [Kiribaku]

Wake Up And Smell The Roses

The complete shitstorm began one drab Wednesday afternoon. An algebra exam on exponential expressions was coming up, and while the material came easily enough for Katsuki, the same could not be said for a certain shitty redhead. A certain persistent shitty redhead, who had the absolute worst pouty-face and the tendency to use flattery to get what he wanted, whether the guy realized it or not. And that's how Katsuki had inexplicably found himself roped into yet another tutoring session with Kirishima Eijirou.

"Nope, nope, stop," Katsuki pointed at the worksheet, jabbing the equation impatiently a couple of times with his finger. "See, that exponent's negative."

"Ri-ight..." Kirishima paused. He tapped the end of his pencil to his mouth, and it didn't help when he did shit like that because it was really fucking distracting. "Uhh, what does that do again?"

"You need to flip the fraction in the parenthesis."

"Okay, yes, I knew that. Just making sure."

The past hour or so had been like this. To be fair, the whole situation could have been a lot more unbearable. Tutoring Kirishima wasn't the worst thing Katsuki could do with his time, and it wasn't like Kirishima was an idiot. The guy had the basics premise down, and he seemed to genuinely enjoy figuring things out. It was math that was the problem, and when all the steps were combined together, Kirishima would get overwhelmed. Then he'd start second guessing himself, looking lost and confused because he'd have no idea where to start.

It was whenever that started happening that Katsuki found himself wanting to bang his head against a wall.

The redhead's pencil scratched against the paper, his eyebrows furrowed deep in thought, sharp teeth gnawing at his bottom lip, and for a fleeting moment, Katsuki wondered how he wasn't breaking skin. There he worked, writing furiously, the occasional eraser shavings flying this way and that.

After about a minute, Kirishima set his pencil down and lifted his head, his mouth breaking into a sheepish grin, almost apologetic. "I think I did alright on this one?" The way his voice went up at the end told of his uncertainty. He slid the worksheet over to Katsuki. "There are just so many little rules to remember and I always end up confusing myself."

"If you're bad at math, then you just gotta work your ass off even more to get it down." He snatched the paper, eyes skimming over the chicken-scratch. "This is right, by the way."

"Oh thank God," Kirishima heaved a sigh and leaned back in his chair, hands behind his head. "It's like what Crimson Riot said. Perseverance leads to victory!"

"It fucking better," Katsuki mumbled under his breath, because at this point, he wasn't so sure.

"I should have started coming to you way earlier, you're super smart about this type of stuff!" Kirishima turned to him, beaming, and there was a pattering in Katsuki's chest, that annoying one that he always happened to notice every time Kirishima smiled. "But seriously, bro, you're a lifesaver. I've been really stressing."

"You don't fucking say." The sarcasm was nearly palpable.

'Stressing' was the goddamn understatement of the century. Kirishima had practically dogeza-ed right there in the dorm common space, begging for his help. And even now, Katsuki wasn't sure what had compelled him to say yes. Wasn't sure what always compelled him to say yes, every single fucking time Kirishima asked for tutoring. Maybe it was just how goddamn persistent the guy was, and at this point, Katsuki had resigned himself to this fate.

"Think I can get the next one right by myself?"

And there it was again. He was so damn persistent, and determined, about everything, even when trying meant he would probably fail. And maybe Katsuki was starting to admire that about him.