So, Tutor Me

A Final Fantasy VII Fanfic by ChronicLegCramp-Since'99

Pairing: Tseno

*Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to SquareEnix, respectively*

Reno was lounging at the back of a classroom, huddled in his wrinkled, black school blazer with the collar turned up and his feet up on his desk, crossed at the ankles. His History class hadn't started yet- his teacher being late for once- and although there was ample enough time to scribble down wrong answers across half the worksheet that was due in today, he let his eyes fall closed and zoned out of the hubbub of the students around him.

Three weeks into Sixth Form and already the boy with the bright red ponytail and bangs had had enough. It was a wonder he had managed to scrape a couple of average graded GCSEs amongst the blatant F's, but if anyone hoped there would be any kind of improvement in his work ethic, they would be woefully disappointed.

Just as he was nodding off, a sharp cornered object hit him straight in the middle of his forehead, jerking him backwards. His chair teetered on its hind legs before he managed to get a grip on the edge of his desk and righted himself.

"Fucker!" He stood up, ready to confront whoever the wise-arse was who had thrown the pencil case, which now lay on the worn, blue carpeted floor; however, as he raised his manic cerulean eyes up past the broad shoulders to lock on the strangely generic, warm, brown features of the person in front of him, his face split into a lazy grin. "Rude, buddy, where the hell have you been?" He greeted nonchalantly, throwing a punch towards his heavy-set, muscular best friend's ribs, which the latter blocked easily.

"Nowhere," Rude responded with a laid-back shrug as he bent to retrieve his pencil case from the floor and tossed it onto the desk in front of Reno's.

"Some friend you are- ya never tell me anything!" Reno complained. He slumped back down in his chair, watching Rude with accusatory eyes as the boy with the cleanly shaven bald head sat down, dumping his rucksack beneath his desk before turning in his seat. "I'm really concerned about you- I heard ya went to a Science revision class after school last week. What's that about?"

"Ya not concerned, ya just nosy," Rude returned, his brown eyes laughing over at Reno even as his face remained blank.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Reno dismissed with a flimsy wave of his hand. "Ya do the homework?" He went on, feigning innocence as his only friend returned his gaze a moment. Rude shook his head slowly, his mouth pulling up on one side as he reached down for his bag. Reno hastily rummaged in his own, which had been hanging on the back of his chair, fishing out a chewed biro and his dog-eared History folder. Rude passed him a filled-in worksheet and he lined it up with his untouched own, copying down the answers with quick, clumsy fingers.

"Mrs Crescent does the revision classes." Rude mumbled after a long minute, temporarily breaking Reno's concentration. The redhead glanced up with a lecherous smirk plastered to his face.

"Oh, I get it now," he said knowingly, winking at his friend. "Not that I blame ya, she's a nice piece o'-"

"That ain't got nothing to do with it," Rude protested mildly, although there was a serious edge to his square features that had Reno's smirk slipping from his face. "Anyone beats Professor Hojo...I feel sorry for her, being married to someone like that." Reno studied the unhappy frown on Rude's face, not knowing what to say.

"Well, ya got that right- Hojo's a nightmare," he began, feeling incredibly awkward about the whole topic- Professor Hojo and Mrs Crescent's personal life never failed to leave a queasy feeling in your stomach. "Though I doubt anyone put a gun to her head-" he broke off with a hushed profanity as their History teacher came briskly through the classroom door. He dropped his attention back down to his partially finished homework, glancing up every few seconds to check that Mr Valentine wasn't looking his way. Rude was facing front now, but he shot the redhead an impatient look over his shoulder.

"Reno," he muttered under his breath.

"Gaia, keep your hair on," Reno quipped, sparing a mischievous grin in response to the unamused look on his friend's face.

"Silence," Mr Valentine intoned from the front of the class and everyone settled down. Reno was flustered as he finished copying from Rude's sheet and leaned forwards over his desk. "Apologies for being late..." their teacher was saying.

"Rude," he whispered and his friend's hand slid down, reaching behind his chair for the worksheet that Reno swiftly handed back to him. Mr Valentine's eyes flickered towards them just as Reno was sitting back in his seat.

"Reno, Rude," their teacher said wearily, eyeing them with those weird reddish-brown eyes of his. Sometimes Reno wondered whether they were brown at all.

"Yeah, Sir?" the redhead replied casually, sinking down further in his seat. Rude said nothing.

"I trust you both have a completed worksheet to hand in today," Mr Valentine stated more than inquired with a stern glint in his eyes; funnily enough, he was one of the more likeable teacher's in the school. "Otherwise that's another detention for you tonight after school; half hour."

"Don't worry 'bout it, Sir. Me and Rude both done the homework," Reno said breezily, grinning and locking his hands behind his head.

"Glad to hear it," their teacher said simply, moving on. "Now as I was saying, this is Tseng, a new transfer student. I'm sure you will all go easy on him. If not, you know the punishments. Unless any of you need me to remind you..." there was a short pause before Mr Valentine continued. "Good. Tseng, take a seat at the back between Reno and Elena."

Reno sensed his arms fall to his sides, back straightening a fraction as a tall, slim boy with shiny, straight, black hair walked down the aisle to the empty desk on his left. The boy's hair was tied back neatly in a short ponytail and when his eyes flitted sideways to meet Reno's, they were dark, chocolate brown and seemingly cat-like. How had he not noticed the solitary figure, he wondered as he lowered his gaze, frowning slightly. The hairs on the back of his neck had prickled and he shifted as he stared down unseeing at his worksheet. After a moment he glimpsed the transfer student's still profile out of the corner of his eye, quietly marveling at the way the boy had impeccably set out his folder and pencil case. He almost jumped out of his skin when he suddenly met Elena's curious gaze from across the new boy's desk. She raised an eyebrow, her eyes flying to the new boy and then away, her cheeks flushing furiously.

"Reno," the person in question started at the harsh tone in Mr Valentine's voice. He looked up to see his teacher sending him a tired glare, a textbook in hand. "Stop gawking and pay attention."

"Sir," he mumbled, feeling his face heat up a tad as he leaned forward on his desk, propping his chin on his fist.

"Hand out the textbooks," Mr Valentine instructed passively, turning his gaze back to the rest of the class. Reno discreetly stuck up his two fingers at Rude's muffled snigger as he pushed out of his chair and slunk to the front of the room. "When you get your textbook, turn to pages 65-66, please," his teacher went on while he gathered up the heavy pile of books in his arms. "You look pale," Mr Valentine added in lowered tones before Reno turned away. "Are you feeling alright?" The redhead blanched but flashed him a carefree grin.

"Peachy, thanks, Teach," he replied before starting his way around the room, dumping books unceremoniously on desks as he went. Rude attempted to trip him as he passed by his desk, but he side-stepped last minute and hit him up the back of his head.

"Reno," Mr Valentine admonished sharply, his gaze like a laser boring into the redhead's face. "One more disruption and you'll be leaving my classroom. Need I add you'll be having an hours detention after school?"

"Sorry, Sir," he responded quickly, an apologetic grimace colouring his angular features.

"Finish handing out the textbooks and sit down."

"Yessir!" Reno mock-saluted, shooting Rude the evils but refraining from hitting him again. When he turned to resume his task, he saw the transfer student staring at him. At first glance the boy's face seemed expressionless but as his eyes fixed forwards again, Reno thought he detected irritation in the firm set of his mouth. For unexplainable reasons, that got under the redhead's skin and he wordlessly dropped a textbook on top of the boy's pristine pencil case before walking away.

The lesson went on and Mr Valentine eventually asked them to complete tasks in the textbook; although Reno was only half paying attention as he sat doodling in the corner of a fresh piece of lined paper, beside where he had written the date. Students were chatting to one another, their teacher requesting they quieten down a bit every so often while he sat at his desk, working fastidiously on the computer. The redhead groaned weakly, leaning forward after a prolonged minute to pester Rude.

"Rude, what we meant to be doin' again?" His best friend glanced over his shoulder idly, eyes inscrutible.

"Questions 1-5 in the textbook."

"Man, I'm sick of learnin' about the history of Wutai. It feels like Teach' has been bangin' on about it forever," Reno replied unnecessarily loudly as he pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut. He heard Rude muffle a cough and dropped his hand again to look at him. "What?" His friend passed his hand over his bald head as though stalling for time, his gaze darting towards the new transfer student and back.

"I think he's Wutaian." The muscular boy muttered under his breath, indicating Tseng with his eyes. Reno shifted his gaze sideways with raised eyebrows.

"Really..." he murmured more to himself than to his friend, his inquisitive eyes scrutinising the dark haired boy's features, trying to find something different- unique- about them compared to everyone else in Midgar.

Tseng was concentrating lightly on what he was writing down, his face empty; however as Reno continued to stare, he saw a crease appear at the bridge of the boy's nose. He didn't pause or look up, only kept on working, a muscle jumping in his jaw. The redhead's eyes drifted more than once down to the boy's lips, pondering whether there was something about them that kept drawing his focus; but there was nothing out of the ordinary about them. They were as perfectly normal as Reno's own although the latter was sure the boy's teeth were in better condition than his were. Rather randomly, he wondered whether Tseng had ever had to wear braces- he was certain this boy's family had to have some money lying around to be able to afford them; he was just too prim and proper compared to the rest of the rabble that populated the school, including half the teachers.

"...Anyway, it's only been three weeks." Rude's voice called him out of his reverie and he turned back, hunching his shoulders slightly.

"What?"

"Studying Wutai."

"Yeah, well it feels like ages. It's giving me a migraine," he returned non-commitally, his thoughts still plagued by questions about the new kid. He shook them off, smiling pleadingly up at his friend. "So...you got the answers?" Rude tilted his head as though he was peering over the rims of invisible glasses, gazing down at him with raised eyebrows.

"It's in the text," Rude stated without inflection, entertainment sparking in his brown eyes in response to Reno's put-out look.

"Aw, come on, help your buddy out..." he begged unabashedly, doing his best to give his friend puppy-dog eyes even though he knew Rude was immune to that kind of thing. Rude shook his head and looked him up and down once in faux-disgust before smirking and swivelling back around. "Rude!" He exclaimed in a partial hiss but Rude ignored him and he accepted his fate by sprawling face-down across his desk, making the noises of a wounded animal until Mr Valentine called out his name in reprimand. He didn't care if the school thought he was one big joke- it was already too late for that by a long shot anyway.

A few seconds went by before he was compelled to tilt his head up to the side, his cheek resting against his arm and found the unfathomable eyes of the new boy staring back at him. "...You got a problem?" Reno demanded half-heartedly, feeling his muscles tense under the unwanted scrutiny. Tseng's expression remained the same, his gaze clear yet dominating somehow. Reno almost expected him not to reply.

"No," Tseng murmured in a deep, slightly monotonous tone. The redhead felt his insides curl at the boy's voice and he tried to rid himself of the alien feeling by searching for ridicule in Tseng's manner, finding none whatsoever. "But you obviously do." He straightened up from his desk at that, a haughty scowl twisting his features.

"Ya got a real attitude problem, ya know that?" He retorted, stomach knotting and fists clenching as the boy arched up one of his fine black eyebrows at him.

"Look who's talking." Tseng returned effortlessly, a glint of what Reno could have sworn was irony in his cat's eyes. He'd reached the end of his fuse with that and stood up with so much melodramatic force that his chair crashed backwards onto the carpet.

"Ya got somethin' to say?" He said in a loud obnoxious voice, glaring down at Tseng intently, but the latter didn't bat an eyelid.

"Sit down, Reno." Mr Valentine scolded from the front of the class, sounding as if he were quickly losing the will to live. Reno stayed standing for half a second, his and the new boy's eyes locked rigidly. He barely registered the attention of the class on them, there was just him and the boy who was fast spoiling an already boring day. Ya not bored now, are ya? He pushed away the ridiculous thought. Releasing a short breath, he broke eye-contact first and saved his chair from its sorry collapse before seating himself again. His blood was pumping in his ears so fast that he could scarcely hear the resumed chatter of his classmates beyond it. He glanced up to see Rude looking over his shoulder, a question in his gaze but he just shook his head sullenly and dropped his eyes.

"It's Leviathan."

His head jerked sideways so quickly he almost gave himself whiplash, staring at Tseng with an incredulous expression stapled to his face. The nerve of the boy was uncomprehensible to him and he was about to say so until he realised what it was the boy had actually said. He's givin' me the answers now? Talk about schizophrenic...

"Wha...?" Was all he could manage as he studied Tseng closely, looking for signs that he was being serious and not jacking him about. The transfer student wasn't looking at him anymore though, instead looking straight ahead with his arms folded on his desk and his work completed.

" Question 1. Leviathan; the serpentine Lord of the Sea and the Guardian God of Wutai," Tseng elaborated without glancing Reno's way, a hint of impatience seeping into his cultured voice. The redhead just sat there, openly staring and racking his brain for a reason the boy would help him. "It's in the text- the same text we read out 15 minutes ago. Mr Valentine pointed it out." Reno regained some of his senses at the seemingly cold, factual way the boy spoke that last bit, slouching back in his chair as he regarded Tseng's sharp profile.

"So I wasn't listening, sue me." He said off-handedly, beginning to relax a bit without the boy's missile-homing eyes on him. Unfortunately it was then that Tseng turned to look at him again, arms still folded and his eyes impenetrable.

"Do you want to pass this class?" The boy asked and although Reno usually would have been quick to jump to the conclusion of sarcasm, Tseng's somewhat purring, deep tones emitted genuine earnest more than anything else. He shifted his gaze away towards the clock on the wall at the front of the room, raising his arms to cushion the back of his head. He could feel the boy's eyes burning a hole in the side of his face but he managed to stay calm; for reasons unknown it was just easier to talk to him if their eyes didn't meet.

"I'm sure I can scrape by," he responded complacently, absently watching the minute hand of the clock dragging round its face.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Tseng retorted and Reno saw him face front again out of the corner of his eye. Who was this boy? He asked internally, frowning to himself. Was he sent here merely to torment him- to give him a kick up the arse and force him to actually study for his exams? Was he the bane of Reno's existence in human form? He realised that the transfer student was speaking again and zoned back into the strangely lulling lilt of his voice. "This isn't like GCSEs, you have to work hard for A levels."

"Geeze, if I wanted a lecture I'd piss off Valentine again," he complained half-heartedly, dropping his arms and resting his palms on his legs.

"You need to get a grip."

"Is it your goal to make enemies your first day or somethin'?" He said, rolling his eyes before he reluctantly turned his head to gauge Tseng's reaction. The boy was staring blindly down at his desk, but the redhead was befuddled to see the beginnings of a smirk twitching at the corners of his lips.

"Not in the slightest," was all Tseng's deadpan response, mystifying Reno further. When it seemed like the conversation was well and truly over, he returned his short attention span to the history textbook forgotten on his desk and re-read question one. Sure enough the answer lay under the sub-title of 'The Deities of Wutai', naming Leviathan within the first sentence. There was a small captioned picture to the right of the paragraph, depicting the great sea-serpent and Reno decided it wasn't half bad for a creature of reverence and worship. "...If you want I could tutor you."

Reno glanced up at the voice that sent a shiver up his spine, his cerulean eyes round with unadulterated interest. "Why are you helping me?"

"Let's just say it's annoying watching you struggle over such elementary questions," Tseng replied still in that imperious, almost dreary manner.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Reno scoffed dismissively, allowing his gaze to linger on the dark haired boy's vigilant features a moment. With all his sharp intelligence, the boy looked as though he didn't know or understand the concept of fun, let alone having ever tried it. He wondered what Tseng would be like relaxed and at ease, rather than detached and guarded. Somehow he couldn't picture it. "...What if I took ya up on that offer...?" He asked finally.

"There would be conditions."

"Why am I not surprised?" He questioned rhetorically before refocusing his eyes on Tseng. "So go on, what's the catch?"

"In order for me to tutor you, you will need to attend the history revision classes," the new boy began without a seconds hesitation. "You'll be glad to know that Mr Valentine does them since you are so fond of him."

"Hey, I'll have you know I love the heck outta that guy," Reno returned with a sardonic grin, although his words were sincere. Tseng must have picked up on that because he sent the redhead a partially veiled look of contemplation mixed with agitation. Reno's grin slowly ebbed away as he regarded the boy inquisitively, confused by his reaction. "Man, this is gonna suck so bad..." he muttered as his train of thought changed tracks to the impending revision classes he would usually rather be seen dead than at.

"It's your choice." Chocolate brown eyes came up to meet blue again and the redhead's competitive streak ignited at the glimmer of challenge on clear display.

"No shit..." he responded, tongue faintly laced with sarcasm as he rubbed the side of his neck sub-consciously. "I'll think about it..." he amended eventually, hating the way electricity sparked through his veins in response to the quirk of Tseng's eyebrow.

"The class is every Friday, after school," the new boy told him and he found his own eyebrows shooting up in mild astonishment.

"How do you already know all this? Pretty fuckin' eager, wouldn't ya say?"

"Efficient is more like it," Tseng countered easily, failing to obscure the touch of pride that tainted his perfectly constructed blank expression. "Unlike you, I don't want to have to repeat a year."

"You have an answer for everything, don'tcha?" Reno drawled with a knowing look as he propped his cheek against his fist, his elbow on his desk to support the weight.

"On the contrary," Tseng retorted- practically proving Reno's point- as he maintained eye-contact with little more than a bored look on his face. "I know very little about real life; and real people."

"That's blunt," the redhead commented after a brief, awkward pause, just about holding the new boy's keen eyes.

"It's the truth." The transfer student's gaze relinquished their lock on his, wandering over his work but Reno could tell he was taking nothing in by the glazed look in his cat-like eyes and the way he tightened his arms fractionally in their fold on his desk.

"I believe you," the redhead said quietly, almost to himself after a tense few seconds of outright staring at the pony-tailed boy. He gnawed on his bottom lip slightly as he turned back to his unanswered questions, catching an outright nosy look from Rude and wondering how much of his and Tseng's conversation he had eavesdropped on. Giving his best friend the middle finger, he released a long breath and started reading through the textbook thoroughly for the first time, if not reluctantly.