Trigonometric Chemistry
Oh look, it's the odd update! I haven't much to say this time, so I'll jump right into story basics.
SUMMARY: Kai and Hilary painting a math classroom…it's just extra credit, right? Wrong!
PAIRINGS: Kai/Hil
WARNINGS: Slightly out of character, I guess, though I tried to keep it in character most of the time. Pretty clean, not much language, maybe on occasion, I can't remember right now. Not many warnings, it's simple, sweet, and clean. And rated K anyway.
DISCLAIMER: Of course I don't own Beyblade, how could you even think I did?
DEDICATION: I have a couple…or 3 actually:
1) To Moonlight Serenity (Jess), just for…eh…because I love you, I suppose. And I miss you because someone….glare…is too lazy to send me emails. Oh and also because it's a KaiHil which I can't seem to write without remembering you. Lol.
2) To Ray-Tiger-Cat for finally motivating me to update (check out her new oneshot, it's quite amusing lol). Even though I don't get net much atm, this girl's finally got me writing again, so bonus points for that. As well as just being an amazing friend. Love you hon.
3) To Elyna and Nikita – thanks for making our math classroom look awesome…haha it's a good distraction. Much love!
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Trigonometric Chemistry
"Okay! So we have to paint this classroom together, Kai," murmured the brunette cheerfully, passing her gaze around the room, past the clock inching just past 4.00 pm, past the window letting in sweet April sunshine, past the notice board covered in math jokes, and past the red door through which they had just entered. (1) "I think it'll be fun!" she laughed, turning to look at Kai, her green eyes sparkling (2).
Kai, who was resting against the tiled wall, in his usual attire (3), just 'Hn'ed…as usual. In truth, he did not think this was going to be fun, but had agreed because he liked to stay on the teachers' good side. Despite everything, he was not as cold as he seemed, and couldn't find the words to say no when his math teacher had asked him so eagerly. Especially when she had thrown 'extra credit' into the picture. Nonetheless, Kai could not honestly answer a 'yes' to Hilary's statement. Though it didn't appear that she needed an answer, as she was already marching off to the supply closet to grab the paint buckets, the brushes, the stencils, the smocks and everything else they might need. "So shall we get started?" Hilary's voice broke through, and Kai looked over to see her standing with a finger to her lips and her head cocked to one side, as if she was thinking. And indeed, ideas for how to paint the classroom had already begun chasing each other around in her mind. "Kai?"
"Huh? Oh. Yeah. Let's get started," was all he muttered before brushing past her and grabbing a paint can and a brush. She just rolled her eyes.
"How do you want to paint this?"
"I don't know. You decide." He couldn't be bothered less. It was just a classroom, and they were going to get extra credit anyway, as long as their work was halfway decent. Apart from that, he couldn't care less whether it was green, or blue, or gray, or whatever. 'Though,' he reflected wryly, 'I probably should take more of an interest…if she ends up plastering the walls pink or something, I'm going to suffer…I've still got to sit in this damn room for the rest of the year too.'
"Hmmm." Hilary was still contemplating how to design the math classroom, and had a hand on her hips and was chewing a fingernail, deep in thought, until Kai broke her out of her musings.
"Why don't we just paint it math-themed?"
Hilary blinked. Turning it over in her mind, she realized that it actually wasn't that bad of an idea.
"That's actually not that bad of an idea. In fact, it's quite good," she said.
Kai simply smirked. "Of course," he said in his deep baritone voice. "After all, I thought of it."
She snorted. "Now you're just sounding like Tyson. Anyway. Let's get going, we don't have all day."
Kai just 'hn'ed again.
"Okay," The brunette's take-charge voice sounded again. "What should we paint on the walls?"
"Math stuff?" Kai snorted.
"Don't be a smartass, smartass! Math stuff," she mocked. "I know, but what? We can't just paint 'math rules' and leave!" Hilary fumed, marching over to the wall.
The Russian teen rolled his eyes again. This was starting to give him a headache. "It might be a good place to start." He was seriously beginning to regret saying yes, but it would be a thousand times worse if it was Tyson he had to paint the classroom with. Though he seriously doubted that Miss. Kincaid could be dumb enough to let Tyson loose with paint in the classroom…paint in the hands of the dragoon-wielder was practically as bad as letting Max loose inside a candy store. Shaking his head, he silently went and got the small stepladder from the supply closet. He set it up near the doorframe and stepped back from it. Bringing her bucket and brush, Hilary bounced over to the stepladder, and with a bit of Kai's help, kneeled on it and started painting 'MATH RULES!' in bright green letters on the wall next to the red doorframe. The sheer brightness of the paint was starting to imprint itself in Kai's mind, and his headache from earlier was starting to really take hold and grow into a full-fledged migraine. And the classroom wasn't even halfway done. Kai groaned inaudibly at the prospect of being stuck in this stifling room for the rest of the evening, when he could have been doing any number of things, with, say, silently brooding at the top of that list. He was seriously beginning to regret coming to school at all today.
Finally finishing, she smirked. "Looks good," she mused. "Shall we?" Kai nodded – yet again – in response to her unfinished question. They moved the stepladder over, after Hilary had descended of course, to near where the clock was. "I know!" she brightly proffered. "Why don't we paint…" rummaging around in the sack of brushes she was carrying, she pulled out a clean one and dumped it unceremoniously into a bucket of orange color. "…orange squiggles?!" And without truly waiting for Kai's consent, she quickly painted two large orange squiggles on either side of the clock.
"Whatever," was Kai's only comment, accompanied by a classic roll of the eyes.
Rolling her eyes again – gee, she seemed to do that in Kai's presence a lot lately, didn't she? – she starting painting some green grass strokes at the bottom of the wall, close to the floor. This time, Kai's curiosity got the better of him, and he had to ask. "What are you doing?"
"You'll see," was all she said, as she continued painting with the smallest hint of a smile playing on her lips. And indeed, soon after she was done, and Kai could read what it said as she sat back on her heels and surveyed her work critically with pursed lips. The large green letters across the bottom half of the wall read 'PATIENCE MY GRASSHOPPER'. Kai raised an eyebrow and only commented, "Shouldn't it be 'patience young grasshopper?' Hilary huffed, her pleasure at her ingenuity immediately put out. "Whatever," she ground out between her teeth. "Let's just move on. I'm not repainting that damn wall."
Smiling silently to himself, Kai took his own paint and starting painting a long string of numbers on the opposite side of the wall, right behind the teachers' desk. He kept on painting, and painting, and painting, and painting…until he reached the other side of the red doorframe. He had gone a complete circle around the room, painting all the digits of Pi, which would fit, of course, around the wall. Hilary raised an eyebrow. 'Now that,' she thought to herself, 'is interesting. Who knew Kai had such an interesting mind?' The Russian, seemingly knowing what she was thinking, just smirked and said "Don't even say it."
"Ha, ha, very funny. Now let's go, we've still got work to do," Hilary mumbled, though she smiled a secret, oddly hopeful smile all to herself.
And work they did. The both of them spent the next hour and a half panting various math-related things on the walls; some funny, some hilarious, some serious math cheat-notes for tests (notwithstanding that the unit of math they were painting on the walls – Trigonometry – had finished with the final test about 2 weeks ago)…and some very interesting, colorful, and unidentifiable things. And those 90 minutes passed very quickly indeed.
Soon Hilary was just finishing up one corner by spelling out the words 'law of cosines' on the back wall, and Kai was leaning casually against the wooden stepladder she was, once again, leaning on. Quietly finishing she moved ahead and began to paint, muttering 'X + Y -'
"Love."
Startled, the brunette looked down at Kai. "Huh?"
"Love. It's what all the corny books say," he explained simply.
Hilary just stared at him for a few minutes. Then came the explosive laughter. Jumping down from the stepladder, she doubled up in amusement and laughter and laughed and laughed until there was a stitch in her side and tears pouring down her face.
Kai just glared ahead slightly.
Still wiping tears of mirth from her cheeks, she straightened up to face Kai. "I'm sorry; I wasn't laughing at what you said, but more at the idea of you making a joke in the first place. …But you are right," she finished quietly.
"What?" his head jerked up and his gaze locked onto hers.
"X + Y equals Love," she softly said, a small, silly smile hovering on her lips. "It's only basic chemistry, after all…" And just like that, leaning forward, she gently kissed him around the lips, while reaching down to grab one of his rough palms in her own, squeezing it. Kai, too surprised to respond, was blank. Pulling back, she smiled at him in her usual cheerful way before bouncing away to finish the last of the painting. Upon reaching her incomplete X + Y equals, she paused. What should she put? She had originally been about to paint in a Z with crimson color, but now, after the events of the last 5 minutes, she wasn't so sure. X + Y equals Love. Maybe that was truer than everyone knew. Notwithstanding that this wasn't the chemistry lab they were painting. Either way, Hilary knew she needed to get the wall painted and done – and soon.
Frowning slightly, she looked out the window, at the brilliant red sunset with wild purple streaks that beautifully marred the evening sky. Looking out at the gold background of sky, her frown suddenly turned upside down into a smile.
Turning back to the wall, she quickly painted in a Z, and hopped down off the stepladder. She caught Kai looking curiously at her, and decided to explain.
"I was thinking of putting in 'Love'…but then I decided it would look better as a painting in my mind."
"Hmm. Could I…?" Kai inquired with an impassive look on his face, his eyes closed shut and face turned towards the slightly open window, so that the red and golden light grazed his face at all the right angles, which, of course, made Hilary gasp inwardly.
"Yes…of course you can share the painting. Art is meant to be shared," she replied quietly to the unspoken question.
He nodded, opening his eyes and taking her chin in one hand. Pulling her face towards him, he landed a kiss square on her lips, even gently biting her bottom lip, making her gasp and admit him entrance. A few seconds later, he pulled back and studied her face with no emotion present on his own, except for the stormy flickers that flashed through his eyes, and the beginning of a smile.
Eyes widening, her face slowly spread into a smile; not one of her usual cheerful, spunky smiles, but rather, a shy, warm, bubbly smile.
"Okay." Kai broke the silence first. "Are we done?"
Hilary looked around the room, Kai's eyes following.
The room looked amazing.
The white walls were painted with math signs, functions, rules, and random little sayings, plus Kai's Pi, of course, in various different colors.
The room was so colorful!
It mirrored the sky, thought Hilary. 'It's perfect. Life's perfect,' thought the girl.
But to him she said "No, not yet. Just one more thing…"
Kai suppressed a groan of exasperation at her perfectionist attitude, (4) but to groan out loud would have been out of character for him, so he kept it safely internal.
Hilary took a bucket of pink paint over to a small, white section by the door, dipped her hand in it, wiping off the excess on the rim, and pressed it to the wall, leaving behind a pink handprint. It looked interestingly pretty, and she motioned to Kai to do the same. He rolled his eyes but complied, using green paint. It was abysmally childish, and Kai would have preferred that the whole student body not know who painted that room, but if it made her happy, he would do it. Cold as he was, he really didn't like to destroy her good mood, especially when it manifested itself in the form of such a cute smile. Ignoring the fact that Kai Hiwatari does not have 'cute' as part of his vocabulary, unless it referred to innocent, sweet homeless stray cats.
Soon afterward they scrawled their names below their handprints, leaving their mark as the artists, all the while surveying the room from corner to corner again. It…looked good, Kai though in surprise. And the major surprise was that it had actually been…well he was Kai, and he'd never admit that it had been fun. But it had definitely been something bordering on that. Smiling to herself, Hilary switched off the lights in the classroom, shut the still-open window, she opened that red door. Following, Kai wrapped an arm around her waist, and she curled herself into him, feeling warm and cozy. Both stepped out into the beautiful, pale night sky, as the glow of red was just beginning to fade beyond the horizon, and the first few stars were just beginning to glimmer. It was the time of halves, where nothing was quite real, and yet nothing could be denied; least of all the development of love. (5)
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1 – pretty much what my math classroom looks like, although we don't have a supply closet.
2 – I know. Hilary's eyes are brown, hazel, whatever, but not green. But I'm the author of this story, and I think green eyes are nice. So deal with it. Lol.
3 They're in G-Rev clothes, just because I liked them best.
4 Anyone else ever get frustrated with perfectionists, but can't help being one yourself? I do it all the time lol.
5 I tried to keep it as much in character as possible. I think love might be too strong for Kai…but meh. It works in the context so I'm just going to leave it there.
Thanks for reading – comments appreciated. Constructive crit would be really nice actually, since I really worked hard on this one and I'd genuinely like to know how I could improve it. As always, no flaming. Thanks!