"You're left-handed?" Rin questioned as he watched his roommate's neat writing begin to take form over some worksheet from his history class. Nitori glanced up at him, his eyes slightly apprehensive - he always seemed to be that way around the redheaded upperclassman.
"Uh, yeah, I am," he replied, twirling his pencil between his fingers. It clattered off of the table and his face went hot. "Oh - shoot," he muttered, slipping onto his knees. Rin was leaning to grab it himself, but one glimpse of Nitori's bubble-butt stopped him in his tracks - no harm in looking once and while, he told himself, but he knew in his heart that this was getting excessive - stealing glances in the locker room, eyes always finding him in the halls, his heart involuntarily stuttering in AP Chem whenever the grey-haired boy grinned at his work or quietly did a lab on his own. No one wanted the younger one for a partner and Rin hadn't had the courage to request that Nitori and he work together and when they did their homework in the dorms, the younger boy didn't have the nerve to ask the redhead why.
It was because Rin was a coward. Nitori's adoration was palpable, but with each failure the upperclassman experienced, whether it was a bad grade on a lab because he was thinking of how much he'd rather work with Nitori in class or a bad time during swim practice, he feared that the boy would realize he wasn't all that great. Under the perpetual frown and the uncaring eyes, apprehension daunted a little boy from Australia with the words 'you won't be good enough' and Nitori would see that too.
The blue-eyed boy got up and sat back down to finish his work. Rin watched from his bed until he pulled out the AP Chem homework. This was at least a chance, he thought to himself, to be close.
"Hey, Nitori." He glanced up, his eyebrows slightly raised like he was surprised Rin was addressing him. His head tipped to one side - damn, he was cute.
"Yeah, Rin-senpai?"
"Mind if I join you? I didn't really, uh, get what happened in class." He'd been too busy pathetically pining after the talented underclassman. The boy's cheeks went rosy.
"Not at all!" he replied eagerly, attempting to disguise his affections - but Rin saw right through it. Not that he minded. He pulled a chair right next to Nitori, ripping a few sheets of graph paper out of his notebook. "You get the difference between all the models, right? It's just - that's the homework. Drawing the models, from the ancient models up to Rutheford's. I think Sensei said we're saving the others for class. And um, we have to describe the differences and the experiments and how each one changed." Nitori had already finished the first couple models and was working on drawin the others. Rin figured he'd go back and add the notes later. "Sorry if I'm ordering you around," the boy apologized shyly.
"It's fine," Rin replied half-heartedly, working on catching up with his homework. Nitori frowned slightly, gave an almost inaudible sigh and began sketching out Dalton's model. When Rin glanced up, a true blue disappointment swam in his aqua eyes. The redhead bemoaned himself for having such a poor way with words - at least, as far as emotion was concerned. But as Nitori rested his right elbow on the table, his own voice echoed back to him like a wave teasing its previous mark on the sand. 'You're left-handed?' And before he had a chance to change his mind, he smacked his arm over Nitori's and curled his fingers the spaces between the younger boy's. Embarrassed, he refused to acknowledge the younger boy's squeak and proceeded working like nothing had happened. He was too cowardly to even watch him react.
It was awhile before Rin worked up the courage to glance over again. The tips of Nitori's ears were a chardonnay shade of red in compliment to Rin's coloring. His hand slipped out of Nitori's and the underclassman cringed as though he'd done something wrong, but the redhead just folded his paper and stuffed it back in his bag. He leaned over and kissed the tip of Nitori's ear that peeped through his downy, grey hair.