Prompt: Imagine your OTP pulling an all-nighter studying together.
Pairing: Midorima/Takao
Author's Note: Requested by hiroki-kamijo on tumblr and Mayuri-Elize-Ackhart here~
Enjoy!
He was so, so, so screwed.
It wasn't really that he wasn't smart because Takao consistently scored in the top twenty students at Shuutoku, despite all the time he spent playing basketball. Of course, Shin-chan was just as consistently the top scorer.
But advanced calculus was completely and utterly beyond him.
The 1000+ page monster of a book gave him the chills every time he tried to even look in its general direction.
And he had a test on Monday.
He'd tried so hard to study on Friday night but all he'd done was play video games and other homework that was due much later in the week. He'd told his captain that he couldn't possibly participate in any practices over the weekend.
Ah, so much gloom…
Ding, dong!
Takao blinked and yelled, "Coming~!"
He raced down the stairs for an excuse to avoid his damned calculus book and opened the door, only to find…
"Shin-chan?"
The green hair ruffled lightly in the cold breeze as Midorima lowered the bright red scarf covering the majority of his face to speak. "Saturdays are better than Sundays to pull all-nighters."
"Wait, what are you talking about?" Takao stared.
Well, damn. Shuutoku's ace was breathtakingly sexy, the sting of the frosty air causing the usually pale cheeks to redden, putting a shine to those clear green eyes.
Takao coughed, embarrassed at the direction of his own thoughts.
"Takao, it's cold."
"Oh! Right." Takao ushered the taller male inside quickly, shutting the door behind them. "But what are you doing here?"
"I know why you skipped practice. So I'm here to help you. That is, after all, what friends do."
"So you're my friend?" Takao teased and Midorima pushed his glasses up in an agitated manner.
"What do you think I am?" he mumbled and Takao had the strangest urge to blurt out that he wanted Midorima to be…
To be what? More than friends? That was ridiculous…
But really was it so strange?
Midorima's voice broke through his thoughts. "You're staring at me, Takao. It's creepy."
"Sorry! You have something on your face, that's all," Takao lied, just to see his reaction.
A taped hand reached up quickly to rub in random areas. "What?"
Takao couldn't possibly say it was handsomeness.
"It's gone," he sighed.
"Well, let's get to it. You clearly need help with math." Midorima slung his backpack off his shoulder and pulled out a thick stack of paper. "The best way to study for math is to keep doing practice problems until you get used to the logic behind them."
"Even if you say that…" Takao swallowed nervously. Math should be a disease. And if there was a cure, he'd immediately go get some.
"Take me to your room."
Takao choked. "Shin-chan, that's so suggestive-"
Smack.
"Okay, okay, I got it," Takao mumbled, taking Midorima by the sleeve and yanking him up to his room. "You're no fun at all."
"Well, I'm sorry I care about your grades more than you do," Midorima retorted sharply and the smaller male nearly stopped in his tracks.
The tsundere really had to stop being so cute.
Takao's table was one of those on-the-ground ones so he gestured for Midorima to take a seat. The shooting ace immediately flipped the heavy book open to the correct page.
"Tell me, Takao. Why did you take advanced calculus? I know that I happen to much prefer the mathematical and scientific fields of study but I didn't know you were like that. And you never struggled last year. Why did you take such a difficult course when you didn't have to?"
Crack, crack, crack-
Suddenly, Midorima's large left hand was covering Takao's much smaller two hands. "That is an abominable habit, Takao. Stop it. I take care of my fingers but you're on your way to making them useless."
Were they…
Were they holding hands?!
"Ah, sorry Shin-chan! I forgot you don't like it when I do that…haha…" he laughed awkwardly as he tried not to move his hands. If he didn't say anything, maybe they'd keep holding hands...
What was he thinking?
"Well?"
Green eyes bore into his face but Takao couldn't bring himself to look up.
"Well, I just wanted to…"
"That's a terrible answer."
"Plus, how could I let you beat me in school? I have to try hard to catch up to the ace of Shuutoku, you know!" Takao chuckled heartily, only to have Midorima's unsmiling eyes look steadily at him. "W-What?"
Why was Midorima making him so flustered?
"Fine, I'll tell you the truth."
"But of course," Midorima said bluntly, waiting for him to speak.
"I wanted to be in as many classes with you as possible. Have you never wondered why I have the same exact schedule that you do?" Takao blurted out, only to see Midorima turning abruptly. "Shin-chan?"
"N-nothing. It's nothing. In order to create MacLaurin or Taylor series, you have to create polynomials based on the following pattern. You see the expression in this textbook, which basically just means-"
"Wait, Shin-chan. Wait…" Takao yanked out his poor excuse of a notebook and a nearby mechanical pencil. "Okay, keep talking."
Had Shin-chan blushed just now? He grinned a little to himself.
"You have to take the derivative in order to find the coefficients of the polynomials…"
[~ * ~]
Many, many hours later…
His brain was going to explode. Takao wearily glanced over to the clock, too lazy to actually turn his head as he used his strange vision abilities to see that it was now five in the morning out of the corner of his eyes.
"Shin-chan…I can't do this anymore…"
"Do you understand the material?"
"I think so…" Takao looked down at his notes and saw that he had answered many questions right that he didn't actually remember solving. "I won't know unless I get some sleep."
But he was surprised to see Midorima's tired face, since he never got the chance to see something like this. Practices and games never wore out the indefatigable ace to this point. Dark circles underlined the bright green eyes, glasses slipping down his nose bridge much more often as though it was too heavy for his nose to support after hours upon hours of pressure.
"Get some sleep, Takao."
"Wait, Shin-chan…why are you doing this for me? Really?" Takao wanted to hear the answer.
"I already answered this question."
"No, you didn't. I never asked this," Takao blinked.
"You're just tired so you don't remember."
Takao's eyes narrowed. "Just because I'm tired doesn't mean I'm stupid, Shin-chan."
"…"
"I'm waiting, Shin-chan~"
"Maybe I just like spending time with you and this was just, hypothetically speaking, a way to get to spend the night here. Not that I would ever sink so low to do such a thing-"
"Do you like me, Shin-chan?" Takao asked straightforwardly.
"I don't know why you would ask such a question. Clearly, I am your friend-"
"You just spent the night here to teach me," Takao grinned sleepily. "You like me, don't you?"
"I am a man."
Takao chuckled. "Fine, don't say anything…"
Shin-chan…I like you…
[~ * ~]
Midorima was exhausted. But at the same time he was feeling elated. And therefore, he was a total idiot.
No, the real idiot was the one passed out on the ground.
The cheeks under those glasses reddened. Takao had just confessed to him, hadn't he? He could bet on fate that Takao himself didn't realize he'd said those words aloud.
Maybe this wasn't so bad. If Takao were to reciprocate his feelings, maybe he'd be less mortified.
With a sigh, he took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. Seriously, this was tiring. He'd never pulled an all-nighter for himself, much less for anyone else. But just being next to Takao had his heart racing as though he'd been drinking caffeinated drinks all night.
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
Midorima pulled the blankets down from Takao's bed and spread it over the smaller male's figure. With a sigh, he got up and turned off the lights so that both of them could try to get some rest.
Damn.
The sun was already struggling to come out of the clouds and stream through the windows.
Midorima leaned over to Takao who immediately began rolling around, wrapping himself up in his blankets like a burrito.
"Idiot…" Midorima said fondly, chuckling a little to himself and placing Takao's head on his lap. Takao mewled in his sleep and readjusted himself to accommodate the harder-than-usual thigh-pillow. As for the ace, he leaned back until his head reached the ground and he interlaced his fingers for a makeshift headrest.
"I'd help you anytime you asked, you know," he murmured aloud. "Well, I might as well say it now, since you're asleep and it's not so humiliating. Fate has decided…No. I like you, regardless of fate, though it looks upon us favorably. I like you, Takao."
Midorima's green eyes slowly shut to follow Takao into the land of dreams when-
"I like you too, Shin-chan."
His eyes flew open and he nearly flung Takao's head off. "You heard me?!"
"No."
"Weren't you asleep?"
Snore.
Dear Oha-Asa…
Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed it :D