(Not) A Fairytale Beginning
Prompt: Where Tenipuri obaachan and ojiichan met.
Warning: het (because of girl!Fuji)
Summary: Fuji fails at science. Tezuka seems to be helping.

A/N: This is another one of those fic requests. -sighs-

To say that Science was Fuji Syuzuka's least favorite subject was a complete understatement. When she was in the early years of grade school, she thought that science was the dust monster up in the attic. When she grew up a bit, it became the abominable snowman. Now that she was in high school, science was the grim reaper.

She already reckoned earlier in life that she would never understand science. (Why was Mercury Hg, not Me when there was no Me in the periodic table? Why did scientists always use the greek letters and one greek letter, almost always meant a different thing in the different branches of science? Why was Pluto a planet before and now it wasn't? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.) So every science period, she would catch up on sleep, with eyes wide open or, in her case, with eyes half-closed (she had, after all, that advantage over the others; the teacher can never tell the difference between an awake Fuji or an asleep Fuji).

"Rice belongs to the – "

But – ack – plants. Studying plants was the most dreadful thing of all. She liked plants, actually. She had an enormous collection of cacti. But studying plants was simply her nightmare. Her teacher pointed out that studying plants would help in their appreciation of the flora. In Fuji's opinion, though, she was better off not knowing how water and minerals traveled up plants' stems, or how plant hormones worked. In fact, she thought that if she had to sit a bit more on the science lesson, she might actually love her cacti a little less.

Just as the teacher was passionately talking about how plant hormones worked and how plants had a stress relief just as humans did, the warning bell rang. Fuji was on her feet, slinging her bag along when the teacher handed out the results of the last meeting's pop quiz. She folded her paper neatly, smiling brightly as ever, said goodbye to her classmates and went out of the room.

"I got the easiest question wrong!" Saeki complained as he walked to her side. "But at least I passed."

Fuji only smiled. And Saeki frowned, curious. He took a peek at her paper and his eyes widened. He glanced at her smile again and figured that she was probably plotting to kill Charles Darwin and Carolus Lin – Lin – what's-his-name in her head. But since they were already dead, she was probably planning to vent it out on someone, someone within proximity – him! Before Saeki could even decide which direction to go (he was almost sure that Fuji would invite him to go to the nearest noodlehouse and that she would put a lethal-to-the-normal-person amount of wasabi on his noodles), Fuji turned to him.

"I don't really personally care if I fail," she said, smiling brightly. "Biology is very boring. But to retain the vice-presidency of the Photography club, I need to pass."

"Uh… just think that you are Cinderella, science is your evil stepmother or you are Ariel and science is your Ursula. Then your Prince Charming will come and – "

Fuji's smile brightened. "I never liked those women." She paused for a while. "Now, Saeki, won't you mind if we dropped off at Kawamura's sushi?"

Saeki's eyes widened. That was even worse than a noodle house. Fuji only ordered wasabi rolls. But before he could even answer, he saw Fuji tilt her head and look over his shoulder.

"It seems that the Science club is busy again," Fuji said thoughtfully.

Saeki spun around and nodded. "They're always busy," he said as he read the newly-posted sign (Having difficulty in Science? Sign up for the weekly tutorial sessions now!).

"Who thinks of their projects, anyway?" Fuji asked.

"Tezuka," Saeki answers pointedly. He lowered his voice. "I heard that he makes even the Science club members run laps."

"I wonder if he's going to tutor," Fuji said, inclining her head. "If a person couldn't answer a simple question, would he make that person run laps, too?"

Saeki shrugged. "I wouldn't want to know."

Just then, Tezuka stepped out of the club room and asked, "Are you going to sign up?"

"No, we were just – "

"I am," Fuji said, smiling casually and ignoring the shocked look on Saeki's face. She put out her pen and wrote her name on the sign-up sheet. "Let's go, Saeki."

oOo

Fuji had to constantly remind herself that she signed up for the tutorials to retain her position as an officer of the Photography club. She needed someone's help to pass Biology. She needed help to do what interested her. She needed… but did she really need to be tutored by Tezuka Kunimitsu himself? Before she went to the first tutorial sessions, she assured herself that if she got bored she could at least take interest on watching Tezuka assign laps to the person he was tutoring. When she saw her name right beside Tezuka's, she had almost quit. But, again, she told herself, she needed to pass Biology.

From the first session, Fuji made a conclusion that Tezuka was probably the most boring person in the world (next to the Biology teacher, but that was a given) for being oh-so-serious. He knew the concepts by heart, which was bad because she couldn't look away if he forgot something and had to check the book for a moment. Also, he had that knack for wanting to get her full attention if it wandered and he wouldn't stop calling her (" Fuji." Or " Fuji, concentrate." Or " Fuji, pay attention.") until she finally turned to him and said "I'm listening."

On the second day, she thought she would rather shrink away and die. Tezuka finally reached the topic of plants and Fuji actually considered herself lucky for not having Tezuka as her Biology teacher. His voice was a deep, droning monotone and he was talking about plants and how they grew and…

" Fuji, wake up."

Fuji blinked, smiling, unembarrassed that she had fallen asleep. However, she was surprised that Tezuka could tell what she was doing.

Tezuka did not glare and he still was as serious as ever. "Run five laps around the court and come back."

"I don't have to run laps," Fuji said, beaming.

"It will wake you up," Tezuka said perfunctorily.

Fuji's lips quirked. Her smile did not seem to work on Tezuka.

The third day of the tutorial session was, Fuji had to admit, actually nice. Tezuka seemed to know her particular aversion to botany so he brought her to his mother's garden where they studied plants. Fuji thought that Tezuka Ayana made nice, strong tea and she baked excellent chocolate cake and her garden had a nice, comforting air about it. The only thing she didn't like was the fact that Tezuka was telling her whatever taxa whatever plant belonged to.

However, shock came to Fuji when Tezuka went over to a bonsai and said, "How are you, Marilyn?"

Tezuka Ayana must have seen Fuji's open eyes so she explained, "Marilyn is a gift from my late okaasan. He always talks to Marilyn because okaasan said that Marilyn will stay strong."

Fuji nodded. She understood that because she often talked to her cacti.

"I love you, Marilyn. You should take care of yourself."

Fuji quickly gulped down the scalding tea or she would have sprayed it all over Tezuka's mother. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In the end, in front of Tezuka Ayana, she did neither.

Tezuka called to tell Fuji that he couldn't tutor her for the fourth session.

"I understand," she said, hoping that she didn't sound too happy.

But on the day of the fourth session, Fuji found herself doing nothing and wondering why Tezuka couldn't make it. She wanted to go eat the chocolate cake baked by Tezuka's mother and she wanted to know what sorts of things Tezuka told Marilyn (because she believed that Tezuka and Marilyn had to be very close if Tezuka said "I love you").

Just then, she received her paper for another pop quiz and Saeki stared at her.

"You got four out of five!" said Saeki, gasping in shock.

"I did," said Fuji, wearing a huge smile.

"Did you find your Prince Charming already?" asked Saeki, winking.

Fuji blinked. If her Prince Charming was someone who assigned her laps whenever she fell asleep and someone who said "I love you" to a bonsai tree… then, maybe she did.

-End-

A/N: Fuji's worst subject is Science according to PoT volume 40.5. Reviews will be loved.