This is a College!Drabble. It follows #12: Borrow, #21: Friend and the previous drabble!

Ravyn

Kaoru sat on one of the many benches on campus tucked under an assortment of trees; she supposed they were to give students a chance to sit quietly in the peacefulness of nature. Huffing out a long breath, she glared at the quiz held tightly enough between her fingers that her knuckles were white and the paper was crinkled. The letter at the top of the page was written in gigantic purple ink instead of the usual red; red was almost comforting compared to this. At least with red you knew that whatever lay before you – it could be bad. Purple… purple was the royal color and comforting; the color of dusk and sleep.

If she just glared hard enough, perhaps she could make the evil mark go away.

"Hey, fancy seeing you here." Kenshin's lightly teasing voice cut through her growing rage and Kaoru lifted her face to see him bent slightly over so he could smile at her, a black backpack slung casually over one shoulder and a Styrofoam cup cradled between his hands. The warm liquid was probably to ward off the cold of the slowly deepening clouds. It was going to be cold enough to snow soon.

Kaoru considered his smile. Open. Friendly. Disgustingly unhelpful. Standing up, she picked up her own backpack and shouldered it. Turning on her heel, she started the march to the Math building.

"Kaoru?" She was forced to stop when he tugged lightly on the hood of her sweater, rocking her back on her heels.

"What?" Kaoru's voice was snippy and she felt bad for it, but it was cold and she was dealing with a crisis! Granted, the crisis was simply a manner of how many pieces she could get away with breaking her tutor into…

"Something wrong?"

"Won't be for long," Kaoru assured him. "I am going to go brain someone and then I will feel much better."

Kenshin stepped around her, blocking her path with a brow lifted in question. Kaoru knew that expression. That was the expression he had worn when he forced her to have coffee with him two days ago because she had been caught out in tiny sprinkle and gotten just a tad wet, insisting that she needed to warm up.

Kaoru blew out a breath that ruffled her bangs.

"I am having a bit of a struggle getting back on my feet in my calc class after being sick for a week," she finally admitted when it looked like he was neither going to let go of her sweater nor move. She wondered if anyone had ever experimented with his moods before. Perhaps his girlfriend had some tips on how to deal with him when he got stubborn. Tips that involved non-smooching suggestions.

"So I have been going to a tutor and apparently I somehow managed not to learn a damn thing."

"So your plan is to brain the tutor?" His voice was even, but the corner of his mouth twitched.

"You're right," Kaoru admitted. "Braining him is a bad plan. He obviously is lacking something there; much better to kick his ribs in."

He gave up the fight on his smile then and she gave him a grumpy stare.

"Why don't you come back to the apartment," Kenshin offered. When her expression remained flat, his smile widened.

"I have hot chocolate," he coaxed. "Sano is gone for the afternoon so it will be quiet and I can look over that quiz for you. Remember," he pointed out when her face became even unhappier. "I had that class last spring. I might still have my notes."

Kaoru gave in. Notes were completely against her willpower.

X

"I hope you don't mind peanut butter?" Kenshin asked, setting down the tray with two mugs of hot chocolate with whip cream and a plate of peanut butter cookies. Kaoru blinked at the offering before snagging a mug and snuggling backwards into the fluffy pillows on the couch. Calculus did not deserve her happy chocolate time, yet it needed to be done. Kaoru leveled him with a morose glare until Kenshin picked up the quiz, obviously hiding a smile. She sipped consolingly on the delicious treat while he picked up a pencil and started to write on the crinkled paper.

"You didn't do too badly," Kenshin said finally, tapping the pencil against his bottom lip. "You just mixed a few rules, that's all. It's fairly fixable." He scooted over until their legs were touching and settled the book he had placed the quiz against onto both of their legs.

"See?" He slowly went through the first equation, showing her what she had done and then showing her the corrections.

Kaoru set the mug down and leaned closer to his shoulders, chewing on her bottom lip. "What did you do again?"

The discussion went on until he had gone through each problem twice, carefully pointing out her mistakes and writing out the correct formula's to the side. Once she felt far more comfortable with the unnecessary foreign language that was math, he disappeared into the bedroom and came back with a worn binder labeled Calculus I. Kaoru had taken advantage of his absence to finish the warm chocolate and eat two of the soft cookies. She wasn't sure how, but he managed to coax her into pulling out that weeks homework and walking her through the areas she was having trouble.

She thought it might have something to do with the cookies.

Kaoru had no idea how much time had passed until Kenshin stood to turn on a lamp, both of them having apparently missed the setting of the sun.

"Oh crap," Kaoru wailed, hurriedly stuffing papers into her book and shoving everything back into her book bag. "It's my night to come up with dinner!" She paused and then sighed. "Which means by this point Megumi has ordered a pizza and is going to demand I reimburse her."

Kenshin lifted a brow, eyes glancing at a clock. "It's not even six yet."

"Oh," Kaoru flushed slightly, standing and forcing herself not to grab another cookie. Darn him for having edible junk food readily available. "Cooking isn't one of my strong points and the standard rule is if I am late, she orders take-out. Unfortunately, her idea of late is um… well, as soon as she walks in the door and sees I'm not home."

Kenshin shoved his hands in his pockets, something warm hovering in his eyes.

"You are welcome to stay if you want," he offered. "I can cook while you finish that homework."

The welcome expression left her staring until she realized what she was doing and she jerked her eyes away. 'He has a girlfriend, Kamiya!'

Kaoru waved her hand, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "Thanks, but I should be getting back. I have some other things I need to work on. Besides, I have taken up more than enough of your time."

"I don't mind." Kenshin assured, walking to the door as she moved to leave.

"You might not," she said with a smile, twisting so she could get by him and moving into the hallway. "But your girlfriend probably does. See yah!"

Kaoru trudged down the hallway, ignoring the faint laughter that echoed down after her.

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