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Couple: Dell x Gumi

Rated:T

Holiday: No Homework Day (May 6)

Requested by: lizzy'-'rocks

"What the hell do you mean you forgot!?" he growled menacingly, his hands clenching the collar of her orange polo shirt. He pushed her back into the lockers, a dull thud echoing in the hallway as her back made contact. The force was enough to drive the breath from her, leaving her gasping in both surprise and fear as the silvery-white haired boy leaned closer to her face, his blood-colored eyes full of nothing but hatred. "How do you forget!? I ask you for one favor..."

"I-I-I–" Gumi broke off as he thrust her back again, causing her head to thump against the metal lockers. She groaned in pain as he spoke once more.

"I don't want to hear any excuses. I'm willing to bet you remembered your own homework, am I right?" he snarled back at her.

She flinched away from him. Gumi could definitely smell the cigarette smoke in his breath, as well as clinging to that black long-sleeve shirt that he was wearing. She gulped, nervous. There was no way she could lie to him, because he had the same class as her. And if he found out, she would be dead, anyway. Tears threatening to spill from her closed eyes, Gumi nodded her head vigorously.

"I can't hear you," he breathed out against her ear, his warm breath sending a shiver down her spine.

"Y-yes…" she squeaked, turning away so she wouldn't have to look into those demon eyes again. "I did my own."

One of his hands grabbed her by the side of her face, his touch rough and cruel. Her green hair tangled in his fingers, and it took all she had not to scream at the pain of it being yanked. "Then, give me your homework, since you so rudely 'forgot' to do mine."

Gumi felt relief flood through her from head to toe when he stepped back from her. He walked over towards the backpack she'd dropped earlier when trying to avoid a confrontation with him and picked it up with one hand, despite the large textbooks that made it almost too heavy for Gumi herself. He dropped it at her feet and looked down at it, a wordless way of telling her to get out her assignment and quickly. The bell would be ringing shortly, anyway; hence, why the halls were so quiet.

With shaking hands, Gumi struggled to unzip her plaid green-and-white backpack and pulled out her Chemistry binder. She opened it up and took a single sheet of paper out, covered in her messy cursive, and reluctantly handed it over to the boy standing over her. He snatched it and turned his back.

"Don't forget it again," he growled, padding off in the direction of the classroom.

Tired and defeated, Gumi struggled to shove all of her stuff back into her bag before bounding after him, entering her class just as the tardy bell rang. Her blue-haired teacher raised an eyebrow at her, but he didn't say anything as she shuffled to her seat in the back of the class. Her silver-haired bully only smirked at her as she passed his desk.

Her teacher began the day by saying, "Okay, class, I'd like everyone to take out last night's homework."

Gumi let out a silent sigh and placed her hands on her desk. She glanced over at the silver-haired delinquent to see him erase something before scribbling over the paper. She rolled her eyes.

"Thank you, Dell," Shion-Sensei said as the boy handed him the sheet with all of her precious work on it. The blue-haired teacher continued to make his way down the line of desks, pausing at hers. "Gumi?"

"I didn't do it," she muttered quietly, avoiding his wisdom-filled eyes.

He dropped his voice to a whisper. "I'd like to see you after class, then, if that's alright with you?" As he spoke, Gumi looked up in time to see him brush his fingers along his jawline before turning away.

For some reason, that caused the teenage girl to lift her hand to her own jaw, her fingertips coming in contact with skin tender and hot to the touch. A bruise, maybe? She groaned inwardly and wanted only to disappear. Gumi stared blankly at the board at the front of the classroom as Shion-Sensei began with the lesson, but she found herself focusing only what he might say to her afterschool.

::::::

"Gumi, is everything okay?" Shion-Sensei asked as he set his stack of papers down on his desk. The rest of the class had already left for the day, leaving just the two of them. He placed his elbows on the desk, laced his fingers together, and rested his chin on them, fixing the green-haired girl with a quizzical blue stare.

"Y-yea. Everything's fine," she stammered in response, nodding several times as she tried to force herself to believe her own words.

"You're positive?" he prompted, blinking slowly and studying her expression. He noted how she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt and continued to avoid his eyes. "You've never forgotten to do your homework before."

"I-It was just a one-time thing," Gumi insisted desperately.

He blinking again and leaned back in his chair. "If you say so. But I want you to know that if there's anything wrong, you don't have to be afraid to talk about it." Shion-Sensei brought a hand up to his cheek again. "What happened, anyway?"

Gumi's mind raced as she thought for an excuse. If she told her teacher she was getting bullied by Dell, that boy would kill her. He was plenty violent over her simply forgetting to do one homework assignment. If she were to turn him in…she didn't even want to think of the possibilities.

But…there had been that time she walked around with a pretty large bruise on her arm because of her wrestling with her twin brother, Gumiya. Maybe she could pull off that story again.

So that was exactly what she told him.

Shion-Sensei raised a brow at her explanation, but didn't continue to question her. "I do expect you to turn in both last night's assignment and tonight's, though, at the beginning of class tomorrow. Understand?"

"Yes, sir." With that, Gumi snatched up her backpack and skittered out of the classroom. She bounded down the abandoned halls, her footsteps squeaking on the linoleum floor. Her thin hair flowed behind her, messy from her pulling at it due to her stress. All she wanted was to get out of there and be back at home, where she wouldn't have to worry about torment and drama until the next morning.

Of course, life refused to grant her that wish.

As she rounded the corner of the long hallway, she found herself standing face-to-face with Honne Dell himself. A cigarette stuck from the corner of his mouth, a thin line of smoke fluttering up into the air from the burning end. His blood red eyes weren't as cruel as usual; instead, they seemed relaxed, calm. He didn't look nearly as scary as he had been just before class. Even his facial expression was peaceful.

Still, Gumi backed away, trying to find her voice to mutter an apology to him.

Dell took his cigarette in between two long, thin fingers and tilted his head up to blow out a smoke ring before looking back down at her. His gaze still had a way of making her shiver in fear. "I'm pretty surprised that you didn't rat me out." For the first time, he didn't have a petrifying edge to his voice.

Gumi gulped and dropped her gaze to the ground. "I-I-uh…"

"Humph," he snorted, rolling his eyes. He captured his cigarette in between his lips and spoke around it. "Don't forget to do my homework tonight, idiot. I'll do worse to you than I did today."

"Dell?" Gumi was surprised that when she finally spoke semi-confidently, his name was the first word to spill from her mouth. It must've startled him, too, because he froze in his tracks, one foot lifted into the air med-step. He turned to look at her, eyebrows furrowed in curiosity. Gumi's certainty vanished the moment his eyes met hers, but she still managed to stutter, "I-I'm…I'm sorry that I forgot. Please d-don't hurt me…" She finished with a half-hearted bow, her whole body quivering and her face flushing.

"I don't hurt people unless they deserve it," he told her coolly, blowing out another stream of smoke before walking in the direction of the school entrance.

Gumi's mouth dropped open. She staggered forward to catch up to him, dashing out the door before it could slam closed. "I-I didn't deserve it!" she said, and immediately, her hands flew up to cover her mouth. Her veins suddenly seemed to be taken over with icy water instead of warm blood, her heart pounding faster than ever before as he turned slowly to look at her.

"You~" he drawled out, dropping his cigarette to the ground and stomping his foot down on it. "You merely refused to do something I asked kindly of you." Dell pulled a half-empty cigarette pack from the pocket of his dark slacks. He held it out towards the green-haired girl. "Want one?"

"N-no, t-thank you…" She held up her hand to push it back a little.

He shrugged and got another one ready as she began to speak with a shaking voice.

"When…w-when did I refuse…?" Gumi clasped her hands together. "I-I don't know what you're talking a-about…"

"Sure you do." Dell puffed out air and shoved his hands into his pockets, his voice a little muffled from around the cigarette in his mouth. "I asked you to let me copy your work and you said no."

"B-because that's cheating." As Dell started heading down the stairs in front of the school, Gumi was sure to keep herself a good distance away from him, just in case. Who knew? He might snap and go insane and try to kill her. He was never this calm.

"I just didn't want to fail. Trust me, Chemistry is my worst subject. I could take any class and make an A in it. Except for Chemistry."

How can you fail Chemistry? Gumi asked herself, but she didn't speak the question out loud. It's like the easiest class I've ever taken! All you do is memorize the periodic table of elements and mix chemicals.

"And you refused, so…" Dell chuckled darkly, his deep voice sending another shiver down her spine. "I had to do what I had to do." He turned to look at her and stopped walking, waiting for her to catch up. But Gumi halted in that moment, too, staring at him with wide eyes as though she were preparing herself to dash off to safety at any second. He chuckled again. "You know, when I don't need something, I'm a really nice guy."

Gumi narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Fine. Don't believe me." Dell shook his head slightly and continued making his way off the school grounds, heading for the sidewalk that led to the right. The same route Gumi took to get to her house.

"Uh…where are you going?" she asked quietly, and he stopped and turned around.

"What?"

She repeated her question nervously. "W-w-where are y-you going?"

"I figured I might walk you home." Dell took a few steps in her direction, his face betraying no emotion.

Gumi hesitated. She knew this had to be some kind of a trick. Somewhere along the way, there was no doubt that he had a gang waiting there to deal her some kind of damage. Why else would he be being so nice to her? He was only trying to lure her into a trap! That was definitely it!

"Uh-uh….I forgot." She started backing away again, ready to go the other direction. "I'm supposed t-to, er…go to my aunt's house today. Sorry…" And she bounded away – as fast as she could with her heavy backpack hanging from her shoulders – while Dell called a warning to her about forgetting the homework.

:::::

The next day

"Crap!" Just as Gumi left her house with Gumiya at her side, she realized she didn't do her homework. Neither hers nor Dell's. And how could she forget? Well…she had simply been too caught up thinking about how hellish her life would be if she did anything to displease him. Which left her to fall asleep and have nightmares of the silver-haired demon and his red eyes haunting her for the rest of her life with the scent of cigarette smoke simply overwhelming.

Gumiya pestered her, as usual, as they began the twenty minute walk to school, but she found it easier to tune him out this time. She managed to hear the occasional phrase – something about his best friend buying a new video game that they intended to play together over the weekend and that girl he really liked had gotten a haircut – but Gumi noticed that she was thinking only of Dell. Dark thoughts, too, of him torturing her until the day she died. Why did it terrify her so much?

Students milled about in front of the school, since they still had a few minutes before they had to get to class. Gumiya ran off to his usual group of friends, leaving his poor sister vulnerable to the predator that was stalking her. She tried her hardest to keep a lookout for that tiny silver ponytail so she knew where he was and where she should avoid going, but finding him amongst all the kids was impossible.

Yet somehow, he found her.

She was too shocked to scream when he grabbed her by the wrist and flung her up against a tree with beautiful pink petals fluttering to the ground around them in the warm spring breeze. He frowned at her, his red eyes cruel once again. Her wrists were pinned up above her head in a strong hold, so she couldn't wriggle free.

"You did as I asked, right?" he growled, a big smirk spreading across his face.

Gumi opened her mouth to admit that she had failed him again when the school's diva, Megurine Luka, pointed at them with a snobbish, mocking look on her face. "Aww! Gumi finally found herself a nice boyfriend!"

Dell grinned at the words that echoed in the air, even more so when the rest of the kids started murmuring quietly about the two. But Gumi struggled in his hold.

"I-I'm sorry…I forgot! Please…l-let me go!" She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away so she wouldn't have to meet his gaze. If she did any longer, the dam would break and salty tears would start pouring down her cheeks.

The boy decided not to abuse her in front of the whole school, so he squeezed her wrists enough to cause her to let out a muffled squeal of pain before releasing her. "I better have it before last period."

"I-I'll work on it during lunch…"

::::::

"Gumi!"

"I swear, I finished it all! It's all here! It's all in my bag! I won't forget again!" Words started pouring from her lips before she could even register exactly what she saying. Even more embarrassing: upon hearing his voice, Gumi lifted her hands in the air as though she were surrendering. She could hear his chuckle of amusement as she turned to see the silver haired boy make his way over to her.

Dell snatched her by the shoulders and pushed her back into the wall, the dull thump of the contact echoing in the nearly-empty hallways. A strong smoky scent wafted from his clothes and stung her eyes, but Gumi kept her terrified gaze fixed on her tormentor. "Well?" he demanded harshly, letting go of her and kicking the backpack she'd dropped as he flung her back. "Aren't you going to get it out?"

Once again, she shook nervously as she pulled out his own copy of last night's Chemistry homework, all twenty-five questions answered to the best of her ability. Dell took it from her and glanced over it, as though making sure she hadn't tried to screw him over with fake answers. Then, he smiled a genuine smile.

"See? Do this more often and we just might get along, Gumi." Dell pressed his lips against her cheek for a brief instant, and heat quickly rose to her face as he walked off towards their classroom.

Dumbfounded, Gumi let her fingers touch the area where his lips had been. Why had it sent a spark through her body? She gathered up her things and headed to class, blushing even darker when Dell smirked at her as she passed his desk. She plopped down in her chair and buried her face in her hands as she relived the moment over and over in her mind.

She'd have to remember to do his homework more often.

Requests? Comments?

(:Mizune