Blossoming Fissure | Tanjirou Kamado

Day 1. Math Tutoring, a Bunch of Tears and Watermelon Ice Cream

This is the first submission for a fun drabbles week I'm doing with Serra, this is Day 1. Math Tutoring

Also solarsnapp's very very late birthday present lol

i'll be posting a drabble every day this week (hopefully) so look out for that

...

"Okay so you take this and this," Aya's pencil points to a certain number in the page, followed by another one in the corner, and writes them both down at the bottom, "and then you add up to a total."

She stops, draws a square around the result, and then looks up to Nezuko. "You got that?"

The younger Kamado nods, with a certain hesitation to the movement, and Aya goes back to look at the page again.

"I think I went over everything," she mutters to herself, before leaning back on her seat and leaving the pencil next to Nezuko's hand. "My mother would kill me if I didn't offer you snacks, so I'll go make some tea while you work on that, any specific flavor you want?"

When Nezuko signs "green tea", Aya finally gets out of the room and closes the door behind her.

Now it's only her and the numbers.

Of course she had known in advance that Shinazugawa-sensei was tough, his reputation all over the school had made things reach her ears. Like how he complicated the exercises for exams, compared to the ones made in class, the scrutiny with which he made sure everything was put correctly, and of course, how he would never, ever answer any questions.

For years, Sanemi's rule of terror had been but a hopeless endeavour from which students, even the smartest ones, couldn't get out alive of with nothing more than a C+.

That was, until Aya joined his class the year before and came out with a perfect score.

Everyone knew there was bad blood between them from back when Aya was still in middle school, but somehow because of this conflict, the girl knew exactly what kind of person Sanemi was. And what exactly it was that he wanted in an academic performance.

So out of spite, Aya studied to death and got perfect scores in all tests for that year's math classes.

No one would ever forget the expression on Shinazugawa-sensei's face every time he handed out test scores, and definitely not Aya's smug smile either.

But even if she had gotten mellower this year, without the spiteful element to motivate her, it didn't take from the fact that she had gotten straight As with Sanemi as a teacher.

And for Nezuko, who usually lags on the average side of things, she might as well need every inch of help she can get.

"I can do this," she grabs the pen and prepares mentally for the strain. The exam was the next day, and she had really, really meant to start studying in advance to avoid an all night-cram. But between the other subjects, helping out in the bakery and running around the place to make errands for her mother and siblings, it silently slid to the back of her mind and stayed there until the emergency of seeing the date in all red in the kitchen calendar finally struck her.

So she sent a text to Aya in a panic, trying not to sound too panicked, and they agreed to meet up for a quick revision of... everything.

Her mind is going blank.

"What was it, that she said I had to do?" Nezuko wonders when she stumbles upon numbers and doesn't know what to do with them. "Add up to a total, and then what?"

She is sure these are not the correct numbers, but there are so many ciphers and even more letters. Nezuko's starting to loathe algebra.

"I'm back!" The sudden cry brings Aya with it, on her hands there's a tray with a steaming teacup and two porcelain cups. She stops on the doorway though, as the smile disappears off her face and she looks at Nezuko. "Are you crying?"