Work Text:
With baseball coloring his life again, despite wanting to drift back to sleep, Todo woke up every day, looking forward to practice. He had, against his own belief, found another team that accepted him, that believed in him. Kotesashi High School, the last place he had expected to play baseball at, was his home.
Well, the baseball field was home, the classroom not so much. Another day of math, science, history, and literature to get through before he could do what he really wanted.
Todo stepped into the noisy classroom, arriving a few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring. He breathed a sigh of relief before slumping down in his chair. He turned, out of habit, to the seat next to him.
“What, no sarcastic comment today-” He stopped in the middle of his sentence.
A rare sight greeted him, something he didn’t notice when he first walked in. Chihaya had his head resting on his arms, glasses folded neatly, placed at his side. His earphones were in, likely blocking out the noise around him. Chihaya never napped in class. He was always early, listening to music or studying, never missing a moment to tease Todo for sleeping in class, or being late, or anything really. Todo can’t explain what came over him in the moment, but he quickly snapped a picture. Blackmail, he rationalized. It was revenge for whatever photos his teammate had of him.
Todo put his head down, somehow mesmerized. Chihaya’s red hair fell over the side of his face, curtaining him from the others, but not from Todo. The bell rang in the same moment, and Chihaya’s eyes opened. He blinked at being awoken suddenly. He met Todo’s eyes, and for the first time, Todo saw how big Chihaya’s eyes really were.
“Good morning,” Todo greeted, keeping eye contact. He cursed in his head. Couldn’t the bell have rung a moment later?
“Good morning,” Chihaya muttered back, a light pink color all over his face. He sat up quickly and put his glasses back on.
Their teacher enters the room, and everyone goes silent. Although Chihaya turns away to focus on what is being taught, Todo couldn’t get that expression out of his head the entire day.
“It’s like you want to fail the test tomorrow,” Chihaya commented. He watched Todo answer the math problem incorrectly yet again during their free period.
“I don’t want to fail!” Todo responded indignantly. He had been working on this question set for the past ten minutes and was ready to give up. The test tomorrow was weighing heavily on his conscience. There were too many topics to understand properly.
“Try paying attention in class for once. That way you’d know that you used the wrong formula.” Chihaya tapped at the example problem laid out in the textbook.
“Fine,” Todo closed the textbook with a huff. “I’ll ask someone else for help.”
“I doubt anyone else can understand the nonsensical synapses in your brain,” Chihaya said, pushing his glasses up his nose.
“Are you gonna help me or not?”
“I can’t risk you bringing us down and being unable to play in our next game.” Chihaya moved his desk to be directly adjacent to Todo’s, reducing the space between them to zero.
“Wow, Chihaya-sama, how can I ever thank you for your incredible generosity?” Todo said mock-bowing at him. He was thankful, of course, because Chihaya had some of the best grades in the school despite being busy with baseball practice.
Chihaya stiffened at the gesture, but quickly turned away, reaching into his bookbag for something. As he moved to the side to take something out of his bag, Todo noticed his ears were red. Interesting. Chihaya opened a thin, green notebook and moved his chair closer to Todo to show him his notes, but he wasn’t looking at those. He could smell a light ocean scent wafting from the boy next to him.
“You smell good,” he blurted out.
“You’re not focusing, Todo-kun.” Chihaya’s facial expression didn’t change, but his ears flushed a deeper red.
Chihaya cleared his throat and began explaining the steps in applying the formula to another practice problem on their worksheet. He had completed the assignment at home easily, then rewrote his notes to create a study guide. He explained the mistake Todo had made in his previous attempt.
“Oh, that wasn’t hard,” Todo commented
“It isn’t if you know how to apply the formula. Now do the next problem.” Chihaya nudged him with his elbow.
Todo worked through another problem out loud, following the same format as before. He circled his solution and looked at Chihaya for reassurance.
“There may be hope for you after all.”
Ignoring the dry comment, Todo grinned at him. “Thanks, Chihaya. I’m feeling better about tomorrow.”
Chihaya scoffed in return, avoiding looking at him. “Don’t get too ahead of yourself. You should use this notebook to study.” He handed him the notebook he used to explain the concept. “This has all the topics for tomorrow’s exam. Ask when you need help, idiot.”
“Chihayaaaaaa!” Todo exclaimed, dragging out the final vowel sound. Chihaya looked at him and rolled his eyes. “You really care about me, even though you’re a bully.”
“Never mind, you can fail,” Chihaya replied, but his expression betrayed the affection that Todo was becoming more certain of every day.