a/n: sry that this took forever! /story ensues/

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

ii. fingertips

Mind on repeat.

"The third time this week … What do you have to say for yourself?"

Of course, waiting for a response when there wasn't going to be one was futile; hand skimming upwards to push red locks from his forehead, the man mumbled something under his breath and placed his grading pen horizontally away from him.

"You need to start doing your homework, Nanase-kun."

"I do my homework."

"But you don't turn it in?"

A shrug. "I forgot," Haruka simply answered.

His eyebrow twitched. "Nanase-kun."

"Sensei."

Holy fuck.

He was going to be ripping hair out, likely his own. Dealing with this kid for the first time had been more amusing than a pain. Haruka was easy to irritate and fun to pull reactions out of. Currently, he was a [broken] china doll – smooth, alabaster skin, big unblinking eyes, passive gaze. As grossly poetic as that sounded … being an English teacher [student-teacher, he reminded himself] caused Rin's train of thought to wander off-track from time to time.

Now the man was beginning to see how taxing it was on his patience when this little shit just wouldn't give him the time of day. He grumbled something into the palm of his hand before stating, "I'll be contacting your parents about this."

"My parents are gone."

This caught him by surprise. "Gone?" the redhead repeated, a frown drawing on his features. No way … he didn't mean, gone-gone, right? Before he could question him any further, the boy was nodding and parting his lips to speak again. "In the city. I live with my grandmother."

Okay, so they weren't dead. Rin sighed and massaged his temples. There was something that turned him off about having to call home to an old lady whose main concern and source of coddling was this kid [probably]. Had to explain his bratty nature, right?

Maybe bratty wasn't the word for it. "God."

"Sensei, you seem tense."

"Alright, listen." Either way, Nanase Haruka was a pain in the ass. Rin paused to gather this thoughts, eventually straightening up to cast a look of disapproval over the boy. "You get one more chance. If this happens again, I'll need to arrange a meeting with your grandmother."

"Oh."

"Got it?"

"Yeah."

"Good."

He had to tear his eyes away from the back of Haruka's head once he was dismissed, slumping back against his seat again and lifting his gaze to the ceiling.

See you, Matsuoka-sensei.

… Despite his exasperation, there was something he kind of liked about that kid.

On second thought.

"Conjugation homework?" Rin moved swiftly across the classroom, collecting the worksheets from his students. "Thank you. Mm, well done." Tamura-sensei observed from his position at the front of the classroom before shifting away again to scrawl this week's new vocabulary in strong-smelling black marker on the board. The semester had been set up in a way so that the old man had little involvement in class other than grading papers and basic lesson preparation. This was to allow Rin the full experience in leading his class.

Stopping at Haruka's desk, Rin found his chest swelling with hope – maybe the boy had brought his assignment to class today. Maybe his words from the week before had sunk in.

"Oh."

"Oh?" Rin drummed his fingertips on the desk tersely.

"I forgot again."

He was going to need a fish tank of patience with this one.