A/N: A departure from my usual fics, which tend to be heavier, but I was inspired recently to create a Shusumi fic just depicting happy times and never ending fluff. Since these moments are small and light, I expect there to be relatively frequent updates (fingers crossed!).


She tucks a loose strand of her auburn hair behind her ear, revealing just the slightest bit of skin on the nape of her neck. Absentmindedly, she taps her pencil on her lined paper, not once, but twice lost in thought, leaving behind a little graphite.

Her eyebrows crumple a bit in confusion, but not even two seconds later, she lets out an audible, "ah!", and puts her pencil to the paper again, furiously writing out the next step of the formula on her answer sheet. In her haste, she inadvertently smudges her hand on the graphite, but she is too focused to notice.

When she finishes the problem, there is a noticeable curvature upwards on her lips not too wide, that anyone would notice and then feel obligated to say, "why, young lady, why are you so happy at simply solving a math problem?", but wide enough to understand that she is, indeed, secretly happy for reaching the correct answer. It may be a small victory, but it is a smile that makes you understand that she finds joy in things like these nevertheless. And while she has yet to check if her solution is correct or not, she is fully confident in her answer; in other words, it must be right.

Satisfied with her progress, she lifts up her head excitedly, ready to indulge in her prize: a fresh, aromatic cup of coffee specially made to her liking, its scent slightly distracting her all this while. The ambiance of LeBlanc, of course, did not help but for various reasons, it was always her number one place to come and study.

However, the quick motion of her head is enough to disrupt the delicate balance that is her curly, left-swept bangs; they fly up for a brief moment, before deciding to land right atop her eyes.

Looking up at her now messy hair in mild annoyance, she blows out a breath upwards to displace them.

It didn't work.

She tries again, just in case.

It still didn't work.

And when she finally resigns to her fate and fixes her hair with her hand, god forbid, the first thing she sees is her companion across the booth, staring, smirking, and silent the entire time.

"...Whaat?" Sumire complains.

"Hmm?" he responds playfully, tilting his head and feigning ignorance.

"In case you haven't noticed, you're staring at me, Senpai."

"Am not."

"Am too!"

"Pfft, you're just too self conscious."

"And you're too easy-going, Senpai — look! You haven't made any progress on your work whatsoever!"

Oh...Oops. Caught red handed.

"What can I say?" Ren replies immediately, not giving anything away. "I'm thinking about a lot of things."

Sumire exhales, resting her head on her right hand in exasperation. "Fine - then, what're you thinking about right now?"

"Right now?" Ren asks, mildly caught off guard by the sudden question. He had inadvertently found himself in a corner. "Well…"

'You're the reason why I'm so unproductive.'

For just the briefest of moments, he considers telling her the truth. But then, the side of Sumire's hand catches his eye.

"...Actually, on second thought," he smirks, "never mind."

"Ehhh?!" Sumire complains, a clear pout forming on her face. She balls up her fists and hits the table lightly, as if in protest. "What's with that? Aghh, you're so annoying sometimes, you know?"

"Speaking of, you smeared your hand earlier when you did that math problem."

"Huh?"

Her anger and exasperation quickly evaporates from her face, and she turns over her left hand first, for some reason, to check then her right hand.

"Ahh, you're right!" Sumire exclaims. She quickly inspects her paper as well, only to be met with dismay.

"Oh jeez, it's everywhere on the paper! How did I not even notice?!"

Now self absorbed in her own world, she quickly pulls out an eraser to get rid of the smear.

And Ren, smirking at her as if it was the most natural thing in the world, watches in amusement, with just the tiniest bit of relief. If she had thought about it logically, she would've realized that there was no way he could have noticed that tiny detail, unless…

'Well, it's the little things that she does after all, isn't it?'

And so, 'I'm always watching'.