Work Text:
His head pulsed, vision going cloudy. High pitched ringing and incessant scratching overwhelmed the silence. Sakura Haruka has finally met his match.
"Chemistry is so damn stupid..." Sakura huffed as his brows remained tightly pressed together. His hand gripped the pencil tighter, almost enough to snap it in half as he looked over at the answer key in the textbook.
The gratification of getting a correct answer was instantly overcome by the plethora of wrong ones after. Each page he’d turned led to another onslaught of words that made no more sense than the last.
Studying was Sakura Haruka's kryptonite. He cursed under his breath as he vigorously erased several wrong answers. Stupid Umemiya, since when did school grades ever matter for Furin High?
It all started when Sakura had opened his report card at Pothos, shocking Kotoha when numerous fails appeared on the paper.
She decided to tell Umemiya about this discovery, causing the latter to create a study regime for Sakura, preventing him from fighting or going on any other escapades until positive results were produced.
”Why don’t you ask your friends to help you study a little? Some of them have pretty good grades, by my standard at least.” Umemiya grinned as he tightly grasped Sakura’s shoulders, who had a look of contempt on his face after hearing ‘ask your friends’.
”I can do it on my own!” And that was that. A single phrase had led to his downfall.
It had only been a week since he’d taken studying somewhat seriously. Initially, he’d thought that Umemiya was joking around a little bit or saying a few words of encouragement to do better next time, but as soon as he found out that Sakura had been out on patrol, his entire demeanour changed.
The laidback, big brother Umemiya transformed into something resembling a stone-hearted mother figure, sending him back to his classroom with a pile of papers delivered right to his desk.
In the first few days, Japanese literature worksheets were stacked high in front of him, even Suo couldn’t help but gawk at the sight. Surprisingly, Sakura didn’t mind the literature exercises, if anything, he found it pretty interesting.
Thanks to this, he was able to reach his quota of around an hour of focused revision each day, only made possible thanks to the interference of Hiragi, cutting down the conscripted two and a half hours daily just to one.
“The kid’s a first year student, he has nothing to worry about.” This interjection was much to Umemiya’s surprise, the sheer fact that Hiragi decided to speak out on this subject had taken him aback.
“Well, I suppose that’s alright! As long as his grades are something you can expect of a role model, like a grade captain’s should be,”
Even thinking back to this conversation made his head hurt, but what hurt his head even more was the fact that Umemiya had changed his target subject to chemistry, a subject that Sakura couldn’t understand at all.
Swallowing his pride, he was ready to send a message to the group chat, asking any of them for help.
He hesitated in grabbing his phone after realising that both Nirei and Suo were present when he made his declaration of solo-study.
However, he knew that he couldn’t do anything without assistance.
With the festival being that night, he'd been receiving constant text messages from his friends, asking whether he'd be down to join.
Crowds weren’t Sakura’s cup of tea so he was already adamant on going in the first place. But now with the pressure from Umemiya, attending the festival was out of the question entirely if he hadn't completed the worksheets he'd been given.
After seeing the messages in the group chat, he thought that only asking for study help would ruin the mood, after all, summer festivals like these only came once a year.
Sakura looked at the clock, it had only been ten minutes since he'd opened the textbook, yet it felt like centuries had passed, and no matter how many times he'd looked and (not-so) intently read each word in the book, he couldn't retain a thing.
Ten minutes was enough for him. He sighed deeply and splayed out on the floor, the pencil rolling away under the table. What was the point of studying anyway?
Before he could close his eyes, a knock pounded on the door.
Disgruntled by the noise, Sakura shifted onto his side, back facing the front door as he hastily his shut his eyes. He didn't care whether it was his friends or that damn Umemiya, even the sight of a school uniform pissed him off, heck, even thinking about it already annoyed him.
"Sakura... Are you in there?" The ends of each phrase dragged out, it could only be one person. "Umemiya gave me your address, told me you were having a hard time with something..."
Begrudgingly, Sakura pulled each of his limbs up off the ground, dragging his feet towards the door.
A click was heard as he opened the door a sliver. Through the crack, he took one look at the voice's face, his assumptions were right. It was Togame Jo.
"What do you want?" The first year grumbled, only his yellow eye could be seen from the other side of the door.
"I dunno, see what you're up to maybe? I was just passing by when Umemiya came up to me on the street," Togame cocked his head slightly to the side, letting him see Sakura more clearly.
Togame wore his usual monk outfit with his signature geta but his Shishotoren jacket was nowhere in sight, instead, he had a waist apron slung around his arm.
"Don't you have to prepare for the festival?"
"Well, yeah, but if it's you I have time to spare..."
Upon hearing that, Sakura had somehow become more agitated from before, a light pink dusting his ears. Luckily, it was light enough for Togame not to notice, as he continued: "Let me in, will you? I brought snacks." He waved around a plastic bag, stuffed with all sorts of things, even bottles clinking in there.
Intrigued by what spoils Togame had brought, Sakura opened the door, letting his guest inside as he made his way back to the table, kicking crumpled papers to the side, making space for Togame to sit.
"Woah, what's all this?" Togame let out a laugh as he placed the bag down and unwrapped a discarded worksheet. "'Burning metal salts'—"
"Don't look!" Sakura shouted, face turning red as he snatched the paper out of Togame's hand. The one he’d picked up had a few more X’s than he’d like to share.
"Wow, your face is as red as burning a strontium salt..." Togame chuckled, resulting in the first year to slump over, hiding his face in his hands.
"What a nerd... so... lame. Chemistry jokes are so lame." Sakura quivered as he tightened his grip around the paper. Then, with gusto, he shot up pointing his finger at the other, furiously shouting, "Why do you know that anyway?"
"Sorry, Sakura, you called me lame. That was so uncalled for," Togame whistled as he leaned back, averting his gaze from the flushed boy. "If you apologise, I'll tell you and help you with your chemistry homework..."
Sakura bit his lip harshly, his finger slowly going down. Togame snuck a glance, watching as Sakura's flush deepened, it seemed as if steam was about to erupt from his ears next, causing him to laugh a little.
"I'm sorry, Togame." Sakura blurted, hiding his face with his arm, avoiding eye contact. "I'm really bad at studying... please... help."
Togame stifled a giggle as he looked at the clearly embarrassed Sakura. "Well, since you asked so sweetly, I'll gladly help you." He reached into the plastic bag he'd brought, grabbing two bottles of ramune and placing them on the table. Tapping on the ground next to him, Sakura reluctantly sat, keeping an arms length away from the other. "You still remember how to open these, right?"
"Of course!" Sakura rushed to grab one, his hand fumbling slightly, making the bottle jump around a little before holding it firmly in his hand.
"Yes, yes," Togame replied as two marbles could be heard clinking onto glass. "Even though I usually worked in food stalls, I've had my fair share of experiences working with fireworks, they're a must in festivals, after all. Plus, chemistry’s just a fun subject,"
"Fun? I always knew you were insane, but what does that have to do with anything?”
"Don't tell me you didn't know that metal salts are what give fireworks their colour..."
"Huh?" Sakura's eyes widened, "Yeah! I knew that, I knew that for sure... Anyways, aren't you going to help me?"
Togame sat up, grabbing the pencil that had been discarded under the table and looking at an empty worksheet. Scanning through the questions, he asked a (what he thought was) simple question: "So, do you know why different metals show different colours?"
"Errr... something to do with being excited... Can metal really be excited? I thought it's just... metal." Sakura sipped on his ramune as he heard the all-too-familiar sound of a pencil scratching on paper.
Quickly, Togame held up the paper, pointing at a crudely drawn diagram of some arrows and circles and boxes. "I'm good at drawing, right?" Togame asked seemingly rhetorically. "These are your electrons and..."
As Togame began to explain, he paid attention to each minute change in Sakura's expression, making sure to elaborate after each point if he sensed even the tiniest sign of the younger's brows furrowing.
Soon enough, he'd managed to memorise each one of Sakura's gestures, noticing how he'd fiddle with his fingers if he wanted to ask a question, or when he'd raise his eyebrows whenever he got something right. When Togame realised this, he couldn't help but smile at himself, he'd seen so many new sides of Sakura on this day alone.
After he'd finished explaining the key concepts of metal compounds, Sakura had felt inspired to start on some questions on the worksheets for the first time since stupid Umemiya gave him the schedule.
Feeling confident, he answered the first few, handing the paper over to Togame for a second opinion.
"Perfectly done." Togame smiled as he unconsciously held out a potato chip from the bag he'd been eating from whilst Sakura scribbled down his answers, "Here, reward."
Sakura looked at the other apprehensively. Of course he wanted to be rewarded for getting the questions right, but wasn't this a bit weird? Surely, Togame didn't want him to eat from his hand...
"You don't want it? Then I'll—" He waved around the chip tauntingly and before he could pull it away, Sakura chomped down, enjoying the flavour.
"It's good, what flavour is this?" He asked, taking the paper back, ready to answer the rest of the questions. He tried to be nonchalant, keeping his head down, ignoring the obvious signs of shame creeping up on his face.
Frozen, Togame hadn't moved his fingers from where he was holding the chip. His facial expression was not one of horror or disgust but just pure shock from the fact that Sakura, the same Sakura that showed resistance to any sort of physical contact that wasn’t fighting, decided to eat from his hand. "Sour cream."
In this moment, the sound of pencil scribbles was the most comfortable noise Sakura could bask in.
Togame hadn't even ruffled the chip bag at all, helping Sakura from ignoring his presence, but boy could Sakura feel a set of eyes piercing a hole into his head, eliminating any chance of removing Togame from his head.
The question was a little harder this time and Sakura couldn't seem to connect the pencil to paper.
"I don't think I can remember the colours that easily."
"Ah, that's alright. Memorising them comes with time." Togame explained, shuffling closer towards Sakura under the guise of reading the paper easier. Sakura didn’t know whether it was the setting sun causing the room to warm up or Togame’s body heat but all he knew was that he had to move away, fast.
"I-Isn't it time for you to be heading to the festival?"
They both looked towards the clock, realising that the festival was going to start in half an hour. "You're not going? I thought your Bofurin friends would be asking you to go?"
"I can't.' Sakura sighed, putting the pencil down. "Umemiya said no fun until I finish the work for the day." He laid his head down on the table, feeling helpless as he looked at another worksheet he had yet to complete.
"So that's how it is..." Togame scratched his head as he looked at Sakura. "Well, why don't you study with me at the festival?"
"What?"
"Yeah, there'll be fireworks so we can just study whilst watching them, and you can have fun at the festival too."
"Me? Go to the festival with you?"
"Yeah, it's me asking you."
"Aren't you going with Shishitoren?" Sakura sputtered, once again, something weird was happening.
"I could ask them if you wanted them to join us, but I'm not sure if they'd be any help when it comes to academics."
Togame seemed too relaxed or was it just how he normally was? Sakura couldn't help but read between the lines, but then again, were there any lines to read between? Was it just a simple outing between friends? Were he and Togame Jo even friends?
"Ah... you don't have to come if you don't want to."
Then Sakura realised he'd been thinking for a bit too long.
"I'll go. Just us. Let's go." He stood up fervently, then looked down at himself. He realised that maybe his loungewear wasn't exactly appropriate for a festival. "Let me change..." He continued, grabbing random clothes from his closet and rushing into the bathroom, locking the door behind him.
He really hoped that he didn't sound too desperate.
A few painstaking minutes later, Sakura came out of the bathroom to see Togame Jo laying in a starfish pose on the floor with an empty chip packet on his chest.
"Ah." Togame gazed up at Sakura and smiled. "Let's go then."
The walk to the festival site was awkward, to say the least. People on the shopping district side of the street waved at Sakura, asking if he was going to attend the festival too, which he could only reply to with a short ‘yes’ followed by him picking up the pace, leaving Togame leisurely trailing behind him.
“So Sakura, uh, what type of bonds do metal salts have?”
”You suck at making small talk.”
”Well, at least I’m making an effort to,” Togame smiled as Sakura looked back. “What bonds then?”
”Ionic,” Sakura sighed, slowing down his steps to match Togame’s once again, kicking a few pebbles as he walked.
”Good,” Togame took advantage of Sakura’s lowered guard and ruffled his hair, “Have you been to a festival before?”
Not bothering to retaliate against Togame’s antics, he let Togame fiddle with his hair. He wasn’t used to someone being so touchy with him but since it only tickled a little, he didn’t mind it as much. “No, not really. Going to festivals alone seemed pointless.”
”Then I’ll gladly show you around. I’ll even buy you some food for all your efforts today.”
”Ah, okay.”
Sooner or later, the smell of fried foods became more pungent as colourful lights illuminated the path that they were walking on.
Togame pointed at a few different stalls, greeting a few familiar faces amongst the staff. If Sakura didn’t know any better, he wouldn’t have guessed that this amicable guy was truly an iron-fisted brute.
He encouraged Sakura to look around and try some of the games but seeing that most of the players were kids, he couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed if it was only him playing, prompting Togame to play alongside him.
”I never knew Sakura could be so shy.”
”Shut up.”
It was an outwardly simple game, hook one of the floating ducks and you win a comically large animal plush.
Although the concept was basic, no matter how many tries Sakura had taken, not one duck had been hooked. At this point, he’d started muttering curses like a mantra, his patience running thin as each plastic duck drifted further and further from his hook.
”Sakura look! I got one!” Thankfully, Sakura hadn’t been the only one throwing money at this one stall, “Which one should we get?”
”We?”
“Yeah, us. Maybe this one? I think it kind of looks like you,” Togame laughed as he positioned Sakura next to the cat plush, it had two-toned black and white fur with some sewn in eyebrows resembling the first year’s current expression of furrowed brows.
Before Sakura could even react to this, he heard the sound of a camera shutter coming from Togame’s phone.
”Hey! Delete that!” He lunged towards the phone, which was swiftly put back into Togame’s pocket.
”Yeah, I think this ones perfect.” Ignoring Sakura’s annoyed remarks, he’d asked the staff to get the cat plush and shoved it into Sakura’s arms, “Here, for you. As a reminder of your first festival.”
”You’re weird.”
“And you blush too easily… I’d say the colour this time is like a lithium salt.” And that it was, Sakura smothered his face into the head of the cat, failing to hide the pink hue prominent at the tops of his ears. “If you do that you might bump into someone, you know…”
Despite this, Sakura kept his face hidden, hugging the cat even tighter as Togame decided to grab his free hand, dragging him to some other games.
They ended up playing a few more games that seemed more like Sakura’s style, the punching bag game being one of Sakura’s favourites, as he’d punched out a new high score on one of the machines before being brutally overtaken by Togame with a perfect 999.
“I would’ve felt less bitter if I’d known you only had rocks for brains.”
“Thank you for calling me smart, Sakura.” Togame grinned, stretching his shoulder after stepping down from the machine, eliciting a loud ‘tch’ from the other, who went back to cuddling the cat plush.
Sooner or later, all the games had made Sakura hungry. Whether it was figuratively or literally, he was drooling at the mouth smelling all the food stalls lined up, ogling at each barbecue skewer they walked past.
Togame noticed this. Even though Sakura did not have stars for eyes whilst staring at the food, he knew that he’d greatly appreciate a little food tour. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
Sakura allowed Togame to lead him to all sorts of food stalls, picking up several cardboard plates of miscellaneous foods before sitting down on an empty patch of grass behind the food stall that Togame was supposed to be working at.
Chewing on a skewer, he looked towards the stall and saw Togame being scolded for neglecting his position, watching him profusely apologise was a sight to behold, especially after seeing him act so leader-like in front of his Shishitoren members.
Sakura laughed a little, and it didn’t go unheard.
“Oh, Sakura.” He quickly whipped his head around, his cheeks stuffed full of chicken suddenly going empty after seeing who called behind him. “What’re you doing here? I thought you weren’t coming!”
“Umemiya.” Sakura gulped, it was the guy he was cursing out just a few hours ago. He was with Kotoha and a few other third years he hadn’t learnt the names of, “Yeah, I decided to go in the end. No point studying all the time without having anything else to do.”
”I agree!” Umemiya grinned, nudging his friends, “But who are you with? I saw Nirei and the others a little while ago, but you weren’t around.”
Sakura chuckled nervously, moving his gaze towards the stalls and in turn, a guy with a smug grin jogged towards him, subtly raising an arm to give him a little wave. “Sakura! I brought more stuff, the fireworks are about to start soon,”
Grabbing the food, Sakura turned back towards Umemiya, who smiled with intrigue, contrary to the fearstricken expressions plastered on the faces of the others.
”Ah, Bofurin! Glad to see you guys here!” Togame grinned as the others began to back away.
”Togame, good to see you too! Have a good time with Sakura, alright!” Umemiya smiled back, “We’ve gotta find a spot to look at the fireworks, but again, thanks for doing me a favour, man,”
“What favour?” Sakura’s eyes bounced between the two, “Is this why you showed up at my house?”
“Yeah, I told you Umemiya stopped me whilst I was on my rounds,”
“I heard Nirei and Suo talking about how worried they were after not seeing you talk that much anymore,” Umemiya began to explain, “So I decided to give you a little cheer up gift after seeing how close you’d gotten to Togame here.”
Once again, Sakura dove headfirst into the cat’s head, but this time he managed to get out a few muffled words: “Thank you.”
After the greetings, Umemiya and his friends left the close vicinity, leaving him and Togame alone once again.
Togame took off the apron and placed it on the ground, patting it down before sitting beside Sakura.
Then beginning to shuffle a bit too close, he reached over across from the other to grab a ramune from the bag, handing one to him as he moved back, sneaking a look at Sakura’s reaction.
“Stop doing weird stuff…” Sakura looked away from him, he felt uncomfortable, he wasn’t repulsed or anything, but there was definitely a feeling he couldn’t explain. “I thought we were here to study or something. Agh. Why am I even acting like this…” He sighed, turning back to face the now timid-looking Togame. “Hey! Now why are you blushing?”
”What metal?”
”What?”
”What metal?” Togame repeated, he was now glaring at Sakura, their faces now only centimetres away from each other. Sakura then realised what he was referencing.
”I don’t know, it’s too dark…” For some reason, he couldn’t bring himself to look away, and neither could Togame. “Lithium salt, lithium chloride, reddish-pink, I don’t know!”
“Correct again,”
A loud whistle rang in Sakura’s ears, causing him to turn away almost instantly.
Intently following the trail of light, sparks spread across the dark sky, illuminating the darkness with all of the colours.
Each firework trail bloomed in the night with all sorts of different patterns and sizes, it was something Sakura could’ve never imagined seeing before.
A brilliant blue shone in the sky, each sound fizzling out as the sparks faded. “Togame, that’s copper, right?”
”Haha, yeah, you’re right.” The other was also entranced by the fireworks, drinking his ramune as he leaned back. “You even told me without me asking.”
”So that’s what you were planning. Does this make me lame?”
”Yeah, super lame.”
“Was this why you wanted me to come with you?” Sakura turned to face the other, who was also no longer looking at the fireworks.
He had a fond smile on his face, his downturned eyes folding into crescents as he saw the colourful lights reflecting on the white strands of Sakura’s hair, urging him to touch it.
“Well, yeah but I’d be lying if I said that’s the whole reason why I brought you here with me—”
“Wait, wait, wait a second,” Sakura stammered, a heat rising in his cheeks once again.
Realising his current situation was similar to those he’d seen in the cheesy romance movies he watched at Nirei’s place, he became hyper aware of each little touch connecting him and Togame.
He hadn’t noticed the other’s free hand fiddling with his pinky, but as soon as did, a scalding heat stung his fingers, every fibre of his body was ignited. “Don’t tell me you… like me, right?”
Speaking without thinking, having no filter, usually these things never bothered him, but in this moment, he was flustered by the fact that he’d sounded like one of the girls in the cringy dramas.
Togame just laughed, “I wouldn’t go that far… yet, but what I do know is that I liked spending time with you today, even without throwing fists and everything, and I knew it would’ve been a mistake if I left you in that apartment.”
Spending time with him, fun? He almost slapped himself after realising he was so close to smiling. A part of him was ecstatic hearing Togame’s declaration, but his (arguably) more reasonable side was worried about what he had to do next.
How did he feel about Togame after today?
“Ah, you don’t have to say anything too serious right now. I realised it’s a little weird hearing this from someone you don’t really think of as a friend,” Togame reassured, now holding onto Sakura’s burning hand tightly. “As long as you didn't hate being around me today, I’ll leave this festival happy.”
“I didn’t hate it, and I never said you weren’t a friend,” He squeezed back Togame’s hand, eyebrows furrowed out of embarrassment, “I’m grateful that you helped me today, as well as bringing me here… I don’t think I’ve felt this way about any of the others before, so, take this as a good sign.”
“Then does this mean you’ll let me take you out again sometime?”
“As long as you keep helping me study, I’ll bite.”
“Thank god I studied chemistry…” Togame sighed, staring back up at the fireworks, pointing at the next one that just exploded. “Oh look, purple, that’s a potassium salt.”
“You’re so lame, chemistry is the worst.” Sakura squeezed the other’s hand even tighter, covering his flushed face with his free hand. “I wish you only knew how to fight.”
“But then we wouldn't be here right now, would we?”
“Shut up.”