You Helped Me
"The class average was a remarkable eighty-five percent," the male adjusted his glasses and looked over the small stack of papers in his hands, pausing for a moment. His blue eyes flicked upwards to glance at his older brother sitting back in a desk. "You single-handedly allowed the class average to drop by five points."
The black-haired student slammed his hands on the desk at this, bounding to his feet to bark back at the teacher, a brilliant flush of embarrassment sliding across his cheeks. "What?"
Yukio wasn't fazed, and merely held out the test paper for the other to come and collect, the one paper in the class that held a failing grade highlighted in a bright red mark. When his brother snatched the exam from his hand and shot him a glare, Yukio merely looked past him to the other students. Ryuji was snickering along with Shima at their usual spots. Izumo looked as bored, yet as confident, as ever. Koneko was cleaning his glasses and blinking in confusion at the rising commotion, and Shiemi... Shiemi sat there with a look of anticipation on her little face. Yukio looked for a moment too long as the young blond glanced over at the other students, biting her lip in the process, but he quickly averted his gaze, clearing his throat.
"Settle down," Yukio opted for, sighing softly and ignoring the string of swearing and yelling that came from Rin and Ryuji about to get into yet another fight of theirs. Yukio swore, one day he'd just let them have at it and see what happens as a result, no medical care to either of them. His brow twitched in annoyance as he raised his voice. "Nii-san, sit down. Suguro-san, come collect your paper."
It went like this until the final paper remained in his hand and a usually smiley blond girl sat impatiently, her hands clasped and lip-biting in process to only radiate her nervousness.
"Shiemi-san, I'd like to speak with you for a few moments about your exam," Yukio looked over at her, making sure to offer a very faint smile in spite of his stern tone, just enough to alert her that the apparent worry that spread across her face was unnecessary. Glancing over at the other students then, the bespectacled Exorcist spoke up with an air of finality. "For the most part, very well done. I expect higher grades on the following exam that will be in two weeks, so continue to focus on your studies. For now, class is dismissed; I'll see you all tomorrow." A polite bow followed, and he watched the students and fellow classmates file out as they always did, grumbling and talking amongst themselves. His brother passed by and meet his gaze with a scowl, to which Yukio replied with a narrowing of his eyes, a silent demand to chastise the other boy and make sure he didn't start trouble once more.
There were choruses of good-byes and waves all around, to many of which Shiemi herself replied with a bright smile from her seat still at her desk.
"A-Anou, bye!," she waved a pale hand, cheeks flushed brightly, as she watched her new friends retreat happily. Yukio took this all in with a small smile and a soft gaze. It really was amazing how far she had come since she first enrolled in the Academy. Even though the traditional Japanese clothes had come and gone, but still resurfaced every now and then, her personality had not faded despite the hardships she had gone through. Her mother was more concerned about it than anything else, as Shiemi had always put on a smile and pretended everything was alright when clearly it wasn't. Her mother confided in Yukio, and in spite of his better judgement, the Exorcist had kept a watch over the young girl as a promise. Well, she was not young anymore, that much was certain. It had been too long since they first met, after all.
With a soft sigh, he picked up the exam that held a perfect score. It was her first exam in the past two semesters that she had flawlessly performed on, and to say that Yukio was proud was an understatement. Other students had gotten perfect scores time and time again, but they all seemed almost bored. Not a single other student in his class, Rin aside, had put in so much effort to try and pass as Shiemi had. With this final grade, she would pass the semester far above the average, he had to at least express his congratulations. no?
Yukio moved over to the blond Esquire and smiled very faintly as her met her worried green gaze. "You did very well, Shiemi-san," he said softly, standing tall in front of her desk and handing her the paper marked with red check-marks and a perfect score circled on the front page. It was a near spontaneous process just then, the way her small hand took the paper and her eyes flitted down to the page. Immediately, her gaze brightened, and with a loud squeal of excitement, the widest, most adorable, smile spread across her red cheeks.
"A p-perfect score?," her high-pitched squeal was entirely disbelieving, and when Shiemi looked up to meet Yukio's gaze, he couldn't help a faint chuckle of amusement and just how child-like she appeared.
"Hai, Shiemi-san, a perfect score," he nodded in reply, smile widening just a tad, her happiness contagious. "You've passed the semester without a doubt. And with a solid "B" plus in the class overall."
He kept his composure well enough, though Yukio was far from calm inside. Shiemi was quite something, she didn't even have the faith to believe in herself like this, but here she had done it, and she was absolutely beaming, radiating her joy right onto him. He couldn't help but feel an odd twinge of happiness and pride himself at her reaction; in fact, he was extremely proud of her. She had become something of a very close friend to him over the past few years. They had confided in each other very few times, but the idea of just having someone there to help if you need it... Shiemi was that person for him. Though he'd never openly admit it, it was a relationship that Yukio quite treasured. His brother wouldn't understand, and he feared that Shiemi took much more interest in Rin anyhow, but it didn't matter. Perhaps he was, in fact, as dull and boring as Rin had said many times before. But for some reason, it never seemed to faze Shiemi. He could find nothing particularly interesting about himself, yet she always seemed to enjoy his company. She was an odd girl, one of a kind, he concluded.
Yukio was also sure, without a doubt, the Shiemi could do so much more. He himself was a double Meister, perhaps even triple, if you really debated it. But a double Meister was no easy feat to begin with, and though the blond clearly struggled to get this far, it was determination, not skill, that defined whether or not one was capable of being successful. Shiemi clearly possessed that determination, Yukio had thought about it many a time in the past. With her remakable improvement in this class alone, she was well on her way to being a double Meister herself... if she wanted to, that is. At first, he remembered clearly, she was extremely reluctant in enrolling in the True Cross Academy. But now that she was here, it was no question that she would not give up. That was clearly visible in her gleaming green eyes in this moment, for example.
"I-I... Ahh! I'm so happy! I studied so much for this exam, Yuki-chan!," Shiemi squeaked as her blush only brightened. But what happened next left Yukio with a very faint fleeting blush of his own. The petite girl bounced up and threw her arms around the male's midsection from her place on the other side of the desk, that being the extent of the height she could reach at that moment. "T-Thank you so much, Yuki-chan!"
Yukio, at first, stiffened at the contact, not quite used to this in any form. But within a moment, he had relaxed, another soft chuckle spilling from his lips as he placed a gentle hand on her head. "Shiemi-san, don't thank me. You did it all on your own."
He earned a shake of blonde hair as she happily pulled back to look up at him. "Ne, Yuki-chan, you taught me and helped me! I-I passed thanks to you!"
Now, Yukio couldn't help a bright blush across his light cheeks at the praise. He really had done nothing, but yet she insisted on it. For once, he wasn't quite sure what to say to this, and just opted to tilt his head, eyes closing momentarily in a genuine smile.
"Congratulations, Shiemi-san," Yukio's voice was light and happy. He decided he would just let her live in the moment for a little now, and then bring up the idea of a second class later on. Whatever courage he had mustered up to speak to her about this topic had flown out the window with the look of sheer joy on her face. It was a touchy subject, and Yukio didn't want to kill the mood, so to speak, so he let it drop. Perhaps next semester he would tell her how much she reminded him of himself and how much potential he could clearly see in her tackling a double Meister in Doctor and Tamer... and how he is more than willing to continue to help and stay by her side for as long as she'll have him, even if she didn't know it.