Daiki taps his pencil impatiently against the open textbook, sometimes pausing to gnaw absentmindedly on the much-abused eraser. His blue eyes are scanning the page with a rather empty, sleepy gaze. He nods slightly, eyes closing, before I snap his book shut before him as noisily and obnoxiously as possible. The blue-haired teen wakes with a start, eyes startled and still slightly cloudy. "Daiki, go to bed if you're going to sleep." I say flatly as he looks up. "It's no use studying if you can't stay awake for longer than ten minutes at a time."
"Gonna fail though." He groans, stretching lethargically. "Gotta stay in school." I sigh.
"Then at least try to stay awake! Drink some coffee or something!" I reply heatedly, going back to my math homework. "Anyway, move onto something else for a while. You can get back to that when you finish something else." Daiki yawns loudly, licking his lips afterward and getting up slowly.
"I'm gonna order dinner." He says as he scratches his head. "Want yakisoba?"
"Yes, please." I reply, working my way through a way too intense problem. "Order some meat or veggie dish. I'll share it with you."
"Sure." Daiki says, flipping open his cell and dialing the number. He places the order as I finish the exceptionally frustrating worksheet. I try not to yawn.
"When are the other idiots coming over?" Daiki asks, sitting back down to attempt his homework once more.
"Sometime this week." I reply absently. "Didn't really specify when. Probably tomorrow or Thursday."
"Hm." Daiki replies, tapping his pencil once more. We sit in silence a while longer as I finish my assignments and leave to get a drink from the kitchen. "Alex, can I use your notes?"
"Go ahead. Your copies are probably right behind mine. If you don't see them just copy it yourself." I answer, sipping my water. The doorbell rings, and my stomach growls in response.
"I got it." Daiki says after a few heartbeats. The sound of paper falling and hasty shuffling amuse me as Daiki probably gratefully puts off doing his homework a while longer. The door opens before the doorbell rings once more. "Oh." is all I hear afterward, cuing me to take a look.
"Daiki?" I call, popping my head out of the kitchen. "Is that the food?"
"I wish." He replies, slamming the door. It opens a few seconds later to reveal the first-string regulars. I sigh in disappointment.
"And here I was hoping for food." I groan unhappily. "At least send a warning before showing up suddenly!" Imayoshi only laughs at my flustered reply.
"What, no parents here?" Wakamatsu asks he enters.
"They live overseas." I reply testily. "Not that it's really any of your business anyway." I sigh once more. "I hope you all ate earlier, because Daiki and I only ordered enough takeout to feed ourselves."
"Ouch." Imayoshi says with amusement. "Not too keen on company, are you?"
"You're the one who showed up unannounced. If you'd told me you guys were coming today, I would've adjusted my plans." I reply with irritation. "It can't be helped anyway."
The doorbell rings once more, and I look to Daiki. "Nope. That's all yours." Daiki says, holding up his hands. I give him an unimpressed look before walking to the door.
"If this is the food, I'm eating your share." I reply, opening the door. There stands a rather unusual sight. "What are you doing here?" I ask with a bewildered look. "And how on earth do you know where I live?"
Here stands the hotheaded Kagami Taiga with his shadow right beside him. "Kagami is failing English." Kuroko says flatly.
"Oi! Don't say it so bluntly!" Kagami practically shrieks in humiliation. I laugh.
"I don't tutor for free, ya know." I reply, leaning against the doorframe with my arms crossed. "Got anything of equal value?" Then I blink. "How the hell are you failing English when you lived in America?" The words come out as a screech of shock.
"I could get by with just speaking!" He replies with equal volume.
"What the actual- oh, is that for me?" My lips curve into an overjoyed smile as Kuroko holds up a vanilla shake.
"Yes. Please keep Kagami from failing." I sigh and move aside.
"Fine, fine." I reply with amusement. "I suppose this is adequate payment. Inside we go."
I look around with a sigh. "My apartment is too small for this..." I whine unhappily, taking a long, slow sip of my shake. "I expect payments for future tutoring. Break anything and you pay for it! Also, bring me yummy snacks." I give the six intruders and Daiki a cat-like smile.
The doorbell rings once more. "Daiki." I say flatly. "I will literally fight you. Your turn."
"Your apartment."
"I will fight you."
"Don't wanna."
"You haven't paid me for all the notes I keep taking for you."
"Do it yourself." My aura darkens threateningly.
"If I open the door, I will place your futon on the balcony next time it rains and I'll let you sleep on it outside." My grin comes out more menacing than cheerful.
Daiki springs up. "I'm answering it because I chose to." He huffs red faced.
"Keep telling yourself that." Wakamatsu mutters just loudly enough for him to hear. I laugh while Daiki glares. Then he moves in that relaxed way of his, walking gracefully toward the door. Of course, even though Daiki's movements are graceful, everything else about him generally is not. I'm talking about not with a capital 'n'. Screw that, it's a not in all caps.
"Oh, it's actually food. We've been waiting forever." Daiki whines childishly. Knowing him, his rather happy, yet disappointed expression looks like he has a plan to kill the poor delivery person.
"Sorry!" The rather anxious looking delivery boy says. "W-We... at the restaurant... traffic... accident... extra...." I pop up beside Daiki and try to soothe the frazzled man-child.
"Ah, don't worry about it." I say with a smile. I then elbow Daiki hard enough to make him fall. "Don't be rude to other people!" Daiki writhes around with exaggerated pain. "Daiiiiki you still have to pay. Give me your wallet." The overly anxious boy makes a beeline for the stairs once he exchanges my food for his money.
"Smells gooood." Daiki says, grabbing the takeout from my hands and clearing part of the living room table so we can sit and eat. I second him, grabbing our chopsticks and handing him his pair. Yes, I did buy new chopsticks. They probably won't break as easily as my last pair, since they're a little more expensive and better made. I jam some yakisoba in my mouth.
"So, tell me what I can do to help." I say around my food, scalding my tongue and flipping open my textbook. "If I can get Daiki a passing grade, I sure as hell can get you to pass, too."
"Oi!" Daiki elbows me roughly, making me wince in pain.
"Ouch, Daiki." I hiss, rubbing my side. "Treat girls more gently, or you'll be alone forever." Daiki looks concerned for a while as I rub my side and grimace. Then I give him a smile, attempting to reassure him, and eat more yakisoba. "Kuroko, should I assume that Kagami is pretty much hopeless?"
"Yes." Kagami then glares at the smaller blue-haired boy.
"Oi!"
"Just the way I like them." I reply with a wicked grin. "You won't like it, but I'll whip you right into shape. For every answer on your next test that you get wrong, you have to..." I think for a few moments. "Actually, Daiki's pretty much taken up all my ideas." Daiki gives me a glare. "You have to buy me a burger for every answer you get wrong. Agreed?"
"Fine." Kagami says with a grimace. I beam at him.
"Actually, since you lived in America, you know how to make burgers, right? Like, the good stuff?" Kagami narrows his eyes.
"...Yes." I grin and bounce happily.
"From what Kuroko tells me, you like burgers. Here's our deal. If you get less than a passing grade, you have to make me burgers whenever I want them until you receive a passing grade. If you somehow manage a passing grade, I'll make you something until your next exam. How's that?" Kagami's lips curve into a wicked smile.
"I won't lose!"
"Sure, sure." I reply, taking another mouthful of my wonderful yakisoba. "Let's get to work."
After an hour and a half, my poor students look a little more enlightened. "You can't put that here, Sakurai." I say, circling the word interesting. "That's like saying 'you interesting are' instead of 'you are interesting.' English can be difficult like that. It's subject-verb-adjective in this case." Then I turn to the much less hopeful Kagami and pray that he's faring better than the others.
I stare at his paper for a few minutes, reading over his homework before I sigh. "W-What?" Kagami asks, noting my rather oppressive silence. I continue reading the paper.
"K-Kagami." I say, staring at him. "I thought you weren't very bright." He looks kind of hopeful. "You led me on! I can't understand a word of this!" My lips quiver. "That's it. You're going to pass English even if it kills you! From now on, for every mistake you make, you owe me ten pushups with me sitting on you!" Kagami stares at me wide-eyed as Daiki snickers.
"Now, let me look at your paper, Daiki." I say with sinister gaze. The blue-haired prodigy instantly shuts up.
"I-I'm not done!" He replies hastily.
"That's okay. I'll make sure you haven't messed up yet." I reply in the same frosty tone. "After all, I've let you get away with hiding your paper from me for the last forty-five minutes." Daiki almost makes it out the door. Fortunately, my arm is as accurate as ever. His phone slams into the back of his head with record force.
The bluenette trips and falls face-first before I grab his collar and go through the effort of dragging him back to the living room. Daiki's fairly heavy for someone like me to drag around. I'm not even going to try to sound dignified about it. I mean, in the end, I just dragged him like he was a dead animal and flopped down onto the couch tiredly. "That did not feel good. I'm sure your paper is fine." Of course, Daiki's brain lets me down once more. "Daiki..." I grow rather irritated. "Sometimes I wonder if you should really be in the same class as the rest of us." Daiki sighs. "Sorry, Daiki, but you have so many mistakes that I'm having a really hard time just reading through one sentence. Tell me what you're trying to write. We'll work on it."
And we do. It takes all my energy, but between Daiki and Kagami, I somehow manage to make their English a bit more improved. The other regulars left after another hour, hopefully somewhat improved, but I won't let these two leave until I can actually understand what's been written. We can work on speech another day.
When I can actually comprehend what's being written, we do manage to make some progress. The sentences get a little more complicated and reading improves. Kagami's listening and speaking are fine as they are, so I don't go over it with him. His writing is horrendous though. We're working on it, though. It shows some good signs of improvement.
After three hours of nothing but fixing English, we all agree to take a break. I reheat my abandoned yakisoba and finish it off, then take some of Daiki's stir-fry and grilled meat. He doesn't bother to tell me not to take any. Kagami's raiding my fridge, Kuroko is pretty much passed out, and Daiki and I are pretty worn. "Kuroko, if you're so tired why not crash here tonight? I'd feel bad if you walked home since it's so late." I say, feeling full and more than a little lazy.
Kuroko gives me a strange look before flopping back onto his back. "Just ask your parents. I'm sure they'll understand. It doesn't bother me if you stay- or you either, Kagami. It's dangerous to walk alone at night." I say more gently. In the end, Kuroko agrees to stay the night, and Kagami does as well since I assume it's a way to walk to his house. We order a lot more takeout and soon my living room floor is littered with empty boxes, disposable chopsticks, and crumpled sheets of scratch paper.
"Try one more time, Kagami. Just do the practice sheet once more, and I'm sure you'll get it." I say with a groan, flopping onto the couch. "Daiki, you try, too..." I nod off for a bit, my face buried in the couch cushions as I wonder if I'm actually doing any good for the two slightly-below-average-intelligence players.
"I think I got it." Kagami and Daiki say after a while longer, when I'm just about to sleep.
"Huuuuh?" I reply drowsily. "Coooool. Why do I care again?" It takes a while longer to pry my eyes open and stare at the two rather confused boys. "Lemme see." I rub the sleep from my eyes and sit up, trying to shake off my drowsiness as I yawn widely and read over the papers. "Well, I can recognize it as English, for a start. Pretty fluent. You'll pass if you show work like this or better." I hand back their homework. "Do you have anything else?"
We continue working on homework well past ten, when Kuroko finally falls asleep. Somewhere between twelve and one, Daiki, Kagami, and I pass out.
"How about I teach you what happens to losers?" Dark eyes, glaring down at me as I shudder and clench my hands into fists.
"We didn't lose, so stop it! We won already!" I glare back, hardening myself for the fit of rage that's about to come. "There's no need to get violent! Just accept that this team was more difficult that the last!" Pain blossoms in my back as the intertwined wires of the chain-link fence presses against me forcefully.
"We could've lost! There's no point in playing you if you're unable to make us win!" Dark eyes, burning with hatred and disgust. Fear sends tremors up and down my legs, making my fingers shake as I grip the fence in my scraped hands.
"We won any way that you look at it! Stop yelling at me, and get your hands off me!" I hiss, pushing the taller figure away.
"Who's going to stop me? You? Your parents? Your teammates? Look at them. They're all here, just watching me." I stare at the rest of my team, all dressed in red and black and white, looking away as I try to meet their gaze with my own.
"Why?" I ask, glancing down at the floor. "Why do you always do this? We won! We won this game!" Dark eyes, staring down at me with a gaze so cold it freezes me insides. Realization dawns across my face. My chest constricts, my heart stops, and my face falls. "So it's like that."
"It is exactly like that." Murmurs the taller figure, dressed in red and white and black and a sinister grin. "It has always been like that, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"Fine." I reply flatly. "I'll get your victories, but if you so much as touch a hair on anyone's head, I will do nothing but cause you losses in every aspect of your life. Do we have a deal?"
"Very well." Red and black and white and evil. Pain makes my stomach explode and my lungs release all air. "That's how we'll shake hands today. Don't forget your promise, Alex. After all, some pawns are a little difficult to replace, but it isn't completely impossible. I'll get a newer version of you if you ever fail me."
"I know that already." I hiss furiously, wishing I could cleat the larger girl with the hateful eyes. "But don't think I'm doing this for you."
Pain blooms across my face, throughout my limbs, inside my chest. "You'll always win as long as you play for me."
I get up with my heart racing and a heavy weight squishing me rather uncomfortably into the floor, although it's nothing unbearable. I look around my dark apartment and vaguely wonder how everything turned out the way it did. I was never competitive for a very long time before I came to Japan. I was fine with winning or losing as long as I had fun playing whatever game had my complete and undivided attention. When things stopped being fun, winning became an unavoidable must.
"Go back to sleep." Daiki groans next to me, probably somehow disturbed by my movements. "C'mere." In my sleepy thoughtlessness, I don't really understand the ramifications of whatever crosses my mind. I groan and flop back onto the not-quite-so-soft floor and burrow between the two large bundles of warmth. "Better?"
I make some sort of groan that I hope tells him that yes, being surrounded by warmth is much better than sitting up with my heart racing and my thoughts beginning to spiral into a past I don't want to keep remembering. I'm content with being here and feeling secure and not thinking about yesterday or an hour ago or what will happen in five minutes. Just being here now is completely fine by me.
Of course, that changes the moment I wake the next morning. I know that I've probably missed most of today's classes, but that's not really what bothers me. I can see Kuroko completely passed out on the carpet by my feet. What's much more interesting, and somehow slightly disturbing, is the fact that I'm perfectly sandwiched between two warm people who can't even spell properly. Oh, well.