Unteachable
AU. Ryuji Suguro was angered by his classmate, Rin Okumura's, seemingly aloof regard for class. Especially since he worked so hard to get high marks. For this reason, he makes it his mission to get Okumura to take school seriously. What Ryuji finds out about the other boy is shocking, yet makes perfect sense. Shounen-Ai, BonxRin.
A/N: I know that this "Bon tutors Rin = Yaoi" concept is pretty overdone, but I got this idea in my head and is slightly inspired by my early days in school. I completely sympathize with Rin, I had a hard time with school and stopped caring after awhile. Turns out, it had nothing to do with my intelligence level. I am currently an 'A' student in college, but only after spending many years working for a living and coming to realize what my difficulties were and how to make them work for me instead of against me (and yet I am still finding out that some little quirks of mine have a reason and am constantly being reassured that I'm not crazy). None of my teachers or peers could help me with this and instead passed me along because I was 'good enough.' I don't hold it against anyone, it's hard to pick out a single student among hundreds you're responsible for, but I do wish someone had helped me when I was younger. It would have saved me a lot of time and grief. Hence the current story.
I tried to keep everyone within character, but there is probably some OOC. This first chapter is pretty short, but hopefully subsequent chapters will be longer. I have no clue how long or involved this will get, or when I will update next, but I will at least start it so I can get the ball rolling. Sorry for the long note :/.
Disclaimer: I do not own Blue Exorcist or any of the characters pertaining to the original Anime and Manga. All rights go to Kazue Kato and all affiliated firms and corporations.
XoxoxoX
Chapter 1- Babble
XoxoxoX
It angered Ryuji to watch Rin Okumura in class. He had been at this school for only two weeks, and so far he noticed that the younger boy hardly paid attention, barely wrote any notes, and seemed disinterested in studying. He couldn't understand someone who simply didn't care, as it was completely against Ryuji's nature. Usually, he was pretty good at ignoring things that annoyed him, but he couldn't seem to block out Okumura. Currently, the boy was sleeping. Sleeping. During an important lecture. Right in front of the teacher.
Ryuji felt his fist curl and tighten at the boy's audacity. Sure, this may be a remedial literature class that was covering material he had already been taught three years ago at his old school, but until the administrative offices could fix their mistake and put him in a class that was more his level Ryuji still had every intention of paying attention and doing well. He quickly surveyed the rest of the students in the room and noticed that, while some were goofing off, most of them were at least attempting to take notes and listen to the lesson. Rin Okumura only slept. Ryuji was inexplicably furious.
'That's it!' He thought to himself as another minute ticked by and the boy still dozed. 'The next chance I get, I'm gonna figure out what the hell his problem is!'
Since his first day in class, Ryuji had noticed Okumura's odd behavior. On his first day, the boy had spent the entire hour staring fixedly at the wall to his right. Ryuji had glanced around to see if there was something there worth such pervasive attention, but there was nothing. Okumura was just staring at nothing. One day, he was reading a manga during the lecture and on another day Okumura got up, gathered his things and left without a word. Each time Ryuji was floored that the teacher spared the boy little more then a glance before resuming her lesson. That was probably the spark for the flame of his fury, and every subsequent incident since had only served to enrage him further. Who was this Okumura person to think he could just slack off like that? And why was the teacher letting him?
The bell rang for lunch, and Ryuji decided to approach Okumura right then and there. The teacher shouted out a reminder about the weekend homework posted on the board while he stuffed his books and notebooks in his bag quickly, hoping to head the younger boy off.
"Oi, Suguro-san." A boy who sat next to him called softly. "You heading to lunch?"
Ryuji looked over to Shinobu Ida, his dark haired and even darker eyed classmate, with narrowed eyes. The boy had been trying to get Ryuji to hang out with him and his friends since his first day in class, but Ryuji wasn't interested. There was something malicious simmering beneath the surface, and he didn't want to be involved in anything Ida did. He had flat out refused on every occasion, but the boy was persistent.
"No." He replied evenly. "I'm going to talk to Okumura before I go."
"Okumura?" Ida asked incredulously. A sudden conspiratory look crossed his face as he leaned closer. "You should be careful with that guy, he's a monster."
With a cocked brow, Ryuji looked back to the front of the class where Okumura stood slowly packing away his things. If there was anything he could call the other boy it was short and slight. Sure, he wasn't near as small as his friend Konekomaru, but Ryuji still had about ten centimeters(1) on him and was far more broad.
"I'm sure I can handle him." He answered Ida dismissively.
"Che, fine." Ida said irritably. "But don't say I didn't warn you."
Ryuji just rolled his eyes as the troublesome boy left the room, leaving only him and Okumura. The outright fury for the shorter boy that he had felt earlier had dwindled down to frustration, making approaching him a little easier. As he slung his bag over a shoulder and moved closer to the other boy, Ryuji felt his brow furrow in confusion as he was still getting his things together and putting them away.
'How long does it take to pack a bag?' Ryuji wondered to himself.
Soon, he was standing behind Okumura as he finally finished putting his things together, waiting for the other to notice him. When it seemed Okumura would continue on his way without acknowledging him, Ryuji cleared his throat to get his attention. Okumura jumped slightly at the sound and turned to Ryuji, but didn't say anything. After a moment of the two standing together, with Okumura allowing his gaze to wander around and wringing his fingers slightly, it became clear to Ryuji that he would have to start.
"Okumura?" When no answer, not even a nod, was forthcoming Ryuji sighed in frustration and rubbed his forehead, but pressed on. "I'm Ryuji Suguro, I just started school here a couple of weeks ago..." He was trying to prompt Okumura into some kind of response, but it was like the boy was completely ignoring him. Now he was staring at his feet and scratching at his shaggy, jet black hair. Ryuji growled, but kept his anger in check as he got to the point. "Look, I have to say-"
"Did that hurt?"
Ryuji blinked, startled by the sudden question asked in a deep voice, rougher then he expected. Okumura was now looking at him intently with a finger pointing toward his ear. He raised his hand to the area and felt his fingertips graze the cool metal of his piercings. It was curious that the earrings were the first thing Okumura pointed out, but if it would relieve the strange awkwardness of this conversation then Ryuji would go along with it for now.
"Yeah, I got them pierced and my hair dyed right before I came here." It was to spite his parents, but Ryuji didn't feel the need to share that with a complete stranger.
"That's so cool!" He shouted as a wide grin split Okumura's face. Ryuji was taken aback by the abrupt change in demeanor, he had been expecting a prickly or defensive personality from Okumura, not such an easygoing nature. "I always wanted to do something like that, but Father Fujimoto would have my head. Being a priest an'all means he can be pretty strict about certain things... But then he's pretty laid back about most things, so maybe he wouldn't care. At least he lets me cook for everyone at the Monastery, it's my favorite thing to do and I'm pretty good at it. It's really one of the only things I'm good at. I try out all kinds of food..."
Ryuji was feeling flabbergasted at all of the information that was pouring out of Okumura's mouth about foreign cuisine and how hard it could be to find certain ingredients.
"...and to make a good American hamburger, you need Worcestershire sauce for flavor. Do you know how hard it is to find that here..."
At first, it had been like pulling teeth to get him to talk. Now it was like there was no off switch. Surprisingly, Ryuji didn't find it as annoying as he thought he would. In fact, he found it a little humorous, even charming and he felt his earlier frustration with the boy fade some. A slight smirk fell across his lips even as he wondered why Ida would call someone so obviously harmless a monster.
"... Do you realize that in, like, fifty years the climate will have changed so much so fast that it will kill off something like 90% of the world's insects? That'll royally fuck everything up."
Ryuji suddenly burst out laughing at the comment, and Okumura scrunched his face at the reaction.
"Are you making fun of me?" He asked a little defensively, but the slight tilt to his lips said that he at least understood why Ryuji was laughing.
"No," he assured Okumura. He quickly collected himself before continuing, "I'm just trying to figure out how you got climate change from South Korean stew."
"Well..." Okumura started as he tapped a finger to his chin. "I was thinking that you had to boil everything in the stew, the temperature water boils at is 100 degrees Celsius(2), then I wondered how warm the water would have to be to melt an iceberg, that made me wonder how hot the climate would have to get, and that reminded me of that thing one of the church patrons told me about the insects... and out my mouth it went."
"Hmm..." Ryuji arched an eyebrow at the response.
His remark had been purely rhetorical, but he was still pretty impressed at the jumps Okumura's mind made to get from point A to point B so quickly. Once again, the younger boy was quiet and wringing his fingers slightly while his gaze dropped away and seemed to rest on something behind Ryuji's shoulder.
"Why are you so quiet all 'a sudden?" Ryuji asked, genuinely curious.
"Huh?... Oh nothing." Okumura answered without looking back at him. "Just thinking."
"About what?"
The other boy simply shrugged in response. A sudden look of apprehension crossed his face before Okumura asked, "Why are you talking to me?"
Ryuji felt his teeth grind as he was reminded of his earlier frustration, though a little voice in the back of his head warned him that getting too angry with the other boy would be a bad idea. "Because you were annoying me earlier."
"Wha..." Ryuji saw a flash of hurt crossed Okumura's deep blue eyes before the other rebounded with an angered growl, "'the hell did I ever do to you!?"
"Why do you sleep all class and ignore the lessons?" He answered accusingly. "Most everyone at least tries to get by, but you just slack off everyday!"
Okumura's clenched fist shook lightly as he turned to walk away from the confrontation. However, Ryuji would have none of that, he was going to make him care about school no matter what. "Don't walk away." He growled as he grabbed the other boy's arm. Okumura quickly shook his grip off, but didn't try to leave again. "It can't be that difficult to just try."
"What does it matter?" Okumura snapped back. "It doesn't matter how hard I try, I always fail! I can't learn any of this shit." His voice dropped as he muttered. "Even my instructor last year told me I was incapable of learning."
"Bullshit." Ryuji said incredulously. He was incensed that a teacher would say something like that. Everyone could learn, just in different ways and at different rates. "You can learn, you just have to figure out how."
Okumura huffed as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against his desk, allowing his mind to wander. It was clear he didn't believe him.
"Tell you what," Ryuji began as he tugged his bag off his shoulder. Okumura looked up in interest, "I'll prove it." He rummaged around in his bag until he pulled out the book they were supposed to be reading for class and some brightly colored post-it notes. With them, he marked the pages that needed to be read for the assignment and stuck one on the cover, jotting down his name, phone number, and address before shoving the book into Okumura's hands. "Read these pages by Sunday, we'll meet up then and go over what you've read. If you have any questions, call me."
"What are you going to do?" Okumura asked, a hint of wonderment in his voice.
"What do you think?" Ryuji asked back as he closed his bag and swung it back over his shoulder. "I'm going to tutor you."
With that, Ryuji walked out of the room and headed for lunch, leaving Okumura behind with a soft smile on his face.
XoxoxoX
(1) about a four or five inch height difference.
(2) 212 degrees Fahrenheit
Most of Rin's traits are taken from how I behaved in middle school and high school (although, if someone called me annoying I would have curled up in a corner and cried, but because it's Rin I decided he should be a little more defensive and argumentative). Much of this I have been able to temper and improve on, such as the inability to initiate conversation, but I still do some things like babble, wringing my fingers (in recent years, I have added tongue clicking as another nervous tick... I may add this in later chapters), drifting focus, and lack of eye contact (I have to actively remind myself to make eye contact with people).
Can anyone guess what may be going on with Rin? I'll give you a cookie if you do ;).
