Sorry for the tiny delay, I'm trying to make sure I have everything set up and consistent for the next big "arc", which is delaying me posting these chapters. So please be patient and I promise it will be worth it! Also for those who are following "Quintessential Honeymoon", it will be on hiatus until I have this arc entirely planned out. I'll let you knew when I have returned to it.

If you like, please leave a review with any questions regarding the writing process behind the story and I'll be happy to answer back! Also make sure to follow for future chapters and share with anyone you think will enjoy this series.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Quintessential Quintuplets, they are owned by Negi Haruba, please support the official manga and the anime

Chapter 7:

Out of all of Itsuki's sisters he had met (amazingly there was still one he hadn't met, which boggled his mind), he was most relived to see Miku. The irony wasn't lost on Fuutarou. This time yesterday, he had associated the name "Miku" with Itsuki's abrasive and loud-mouth sister, whereas today it was associated with the quiet girl that stood up for him against that same abrasive and loud-mouth sister.

Still, as the two sisters took notice of the boy and headed toward his booth, he couldn't help but give an apprehensive look as he wondered why Miku was here. He could see this being some kind of countermeasure set up by Nino so that he wasn't alone for hours on end with Itsuki again. It also seemed that Miku didn't mind him so he could definitely see why she'd agree to playing the role of babysitter.

"Sorry for the delay Fuutarou, I had to tell Nino that me and Miku were hanging out at a cafe for awhile after school," explained Itsuki as the two girls sat down. She then motioned her arms towards her sister. "As you can attest to, I'm clearly telling the truth."

Fuutarou didn't show it on his face but he found the sight of Itsuki's attempt at deception hilarious. The "half-truth" she gave actually wasn't that bad, though it still would have sounded suspicious if he was in Nino's position. However, what absolutely killed him was the wide-mouthed, dorky expression on her face that he assumed was an attempt at giving the boy a mischievous grin. While he was tempted to make a snide remark regarding her lack of facial acting, he decided to go in a different direction out of respect for her accomplishing her clever ploy over Nino.

"Oh, I guess that makes me the third wheel huh?" he joked with a dry smile as he opened his textbook. However, Miku didn't seem to catch the sarcasm in his voice and immediately interjected.

"Not at all, if anything I'm the third wheel on your study date."

Miku scolded herself for saying "date" but she couldn't think of a better word at the moment. She could tell by the way the two were now nervously shifting around in their seats that she had made things awkward. Still, it was now or never as she plowed ahead with her intentions.

"I actually wanted to ask you during lunch if I could study with you two, but I never got the chance. I hope it's okay I ended up inviting myself."

Fuutarou exhaled and shook his head while sporting a small smile on his face, feeling relief that this was the actual reason she was here.

"Well you're already here, so I expect you to take this seriously. This section is going to be pretty tough, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask."

Itsuki noticed Miku pause for a second before nodding her head vigorously. She had figured it might take some time for Miku to get used to Fuutarou's nonchalant personality since she was definitely the meekest of the sisters. Though she was happy that her sister wasn't letting that fact phase her too much.

The three of them quickly got to work as they tackled all of the practice problems given by the textbook to see where they stood on understanding the four major formulas that would be on the test. Naturally, Fuutarou got all of them right even though it took him a little longer than he would have liked. He'd need to practice more on his own time, but for now, he needed to focus on his two students. Well, "students" wasn't the correct term. Classmates? His friend and her sister? It felt way too early to already consider Miku a friend like he did Itsuki. Though he was hopeful it wouldn't take long.

The two sisters finally finished as Fuutarou checked their answers with the answer key. Usually he wouldn't need an answer key to tell him if he was right, but he figured it was best not to waste any time.

That was a smart decision for the boy as both girls only managed to get a third of the questions right. Technically not a failing grade, but there was no point in chancing it when the margin was that close. Plus, the practice problems in the textbook were almost always easier than the ones that showed up on the actual test.

After informing them about their results, he went ahead and started making his own practice problems for them while the two sisters decided to order some food for the table. They ended up getting a fancy assortment of pastries and had it placed at the middle of the table so everyone could grab what they wanted. Both Fuutarou and Miku quickly glanced in Itsuki's direction as she already had three of the desserts on her plate not even 15 seconds after the food was brought. Both had a small chuckle at Itsuki's eagerness but the girl was too preoccupied savoring the sweetness from her first bite to notice.

The young man gave them each a different set of ten math problems and told them not to look at each other's sheet because they would be switching sets after they finished the ones they had. After having everything set up, he reached out his hand towards the plate to satisfy his grumbling stomach. He didn't have much of a sweet tooth, but Itsuki had offered to buy him his meal so he wasn't about to scoff at the free handout, especially since he didn't even get to finish his pathetic lunch today because of the whole commotion with Itsuki's sisters.

As he reached out for a cream puff, his hand collided with Miku's, who had her face buried in her math sheet and was blindingly reaching for anything to nibble on. As the two hands made impact, a fuzzy, numbing feeling invaded Fuutarou's hand as he quickly jerked it back to his side. Meanwhile Miku also rescinded her hand and was growing extremely red at both the accidental contact and Fuutarou's sudden reaction.

The young man looked down at his lap and analyzed his right hand, which had already returned to normal. Thoughts started swirling in his head as he gripped and released the hand that had just contacted Miku's hand.

"Did it happen again?" he pondered to himself, not quite as scared as he thought he would be at the return of such a strange feeling. He was actually quite fascinated by it as he wanted to know more about this phenomenon. In particular, he wanted to know what exactly caused it, and if it really meant what he assumed it did.

He sat there in silent self-reflection as the girls wore their pencils and erasers out trying to solve their problems. Occasionally Itsuki would ask a question regarding the rules of the formulas they were learning, and Fuutarou was happy to reward her initiative for wanting to understand them better. Meanwhile, Miku sat in her seat in complete silence. She gave troubled or confused looks from time to time but never approached Fuutarou for guidance. There was the possibility she was either too shy or too embarrassed to ask him, so he decided to lean over from his side of the booth to see what she was working on at the moment. It took him all of two seconds to see her issue.

"You can't reliably solve for 'y' at this time, you need to figure out 'x' first and that should help make figuring out 'y' much easier," Fuutarou instructed his new pupil. Miku just looked at the boy with a nervous smile before her lips parted to allow herself to talk for the first time in maybe an hour.

"Thank you Fuutarou, but I can't figure out 'x', which is why I tried looking for 'y' just now."

Fuutarou felt blush enveloping his face as he apologized and sat back down. He knew that what he did was an honest mistake since he hadn't been actively observing her thought process, but he still felt embarrassed that his first attempt at giving the girl advice was basically useless as it assumed she didn't know what to do, which could come off as super condescending.

As an act of penance, he went over in his head how he'd go about solving that specific problem and realized that 'x' should have been fairly easy to solve. This caused him to wonder if she was really that bad when it came to math or if she made up that excuse to cover for own mistaken approach. Whatever the case, his approach to helping Miku would need some time to develop.

"Hey Fuutarou, I think I did something wrong. I'm pretty sure this number shouldn't be larger than that one," beckoned Itsuki as Fuutarou immediately got out of his funk and slid over on his side of the booth to be opposite Itsuki to see what she was referring to. He couldn't help feeling a warmness in his heart as she gave him smile and turned her paper around for him to see. At least one of these girls wasn't afraid of making mistakes and actively wanted his help.

Fuutarou had finished up grading the girls' work just as Itsuki paid for the group's refreshments. Itsuki's "65" was a little inflated due to how many times she asked for his help. He had lost count of the exact amount of times but it was definitely more than any teacher would ever allow in a testing situation. Nevertheless her results were still encouraging if she was able to comprehend and remember what Fuutarou taught her. As for Miku, she got a "35" which she was actually really happy about receiving much to the boy's surprise. The girl, who was so silent while solving her problem sets that she would make a convincing mime, was now bombarding him with questions. It seems she's the type to try on her own first and then gather as much information after the fact.

Sadly he didn't have time to answer her onslaught of questions as he needed to head home while Itsuki and Miku had to do the same as well. Fuutarou scheduled for them to meet tomorrow around noon at the public library, where he would answer any remaining questions and give them another mock test, but this time he would be much more hands-off to determine how well they can do based on what they learned. From there, they'd then decide whether or not they would need to meet again on Sunday.

Fuutarou waved at the girls and instructed Miku regarding her questions to either write them down and save them for tomorrow or have Itsuki text them to him and he'd answer them as soon as they started tomorrow.

As the two sisters walked back to their apartment, Itsuki gave a curious look at Miku and proceeded to ask for her opinion on Fuutarou now that she finally got to study with him.

"It was pretty fun, though he hasn't really taught me anything yet, but I look forward to him answering my questions tomorrow. Besides, I can tell he can be very helpful by how he assisted you," she replied softly, giving off the impression she was a little bummed out, probably because she was stuck with quite a few unresolved questions for the time being. Though she also knew that was partially her fault as she was way too anxious and nervous to ask for help directly during the exercise. Also a part of her wanted to show him how well she could do on her own.

"Don't worry, we'll both be fine. I have total faith in Fuutarou being able to help us. I also have faith in us getting passing grades if we apply ourselves," Itsuki declared in an attempt to cheer up her sister. Miku acknowledged her younger sister by giving her a thankful smile. She was going to ask Itsuki about her own personal opinion on Fuutarou but decided to keep quiet as she had basically gotten the answer she was looking for already.

As they walked through their apartment entrance, they noticed their other three sisters huddled around a cell phone that was set on speaker, sitting on the kitchen table. Itsuki immediately recognized the voice that came over the speaker as their Father. It appears both her and Miku were late to his weekly check-in phone call.

"Oh, speaking of change, it looks like Itsuki and Miku are back," Ichika interjected as she saw her other two sisters take their shoes off and enter the kitchen, "We told Dad that something exciting happened to you this week, but thought it would be best if you told him!"

Ichika had walked up to the youngest sister with a giant grin that did nothing to hide her excitement. Itsuki looked at her oldest sister and then scanned the room to see a bubbly Yotsuba and an indifferent Nino. Before Itsuki could respond, their father decided to initiate the conversation.

"Hello Itsuki-kun, I hear that you have something important to tell me, at least your sisters' made it sound like it was really important. While I am excited to hear what you have to say, I do need to inform you that I have to meet my next patient in 10 minutes so please give me a concise breakdown of what happened."

Itsuki took a deep breath and stepped forward towards the phone.

"Father, did they tell you we had to take a social studies test the day after we joined the school?"

"Yes, I was made aware of that, and frankly I'm really disappointed by their lack of flexibility," Mauro Nakano confirmed for his daughter. "I assume Miku probably was able to pass, but I don't blame you girls for failing this one. Just means I need to find a new tutor for you as soon as possible before another situation like this occurs."

"I don't need a tutor, I already found someone who can help me!" Itsuki immediately blurted out as if she had already lost her chance to have her new friend tutor her and was making a last second plea.

"Hm..." Mauro pondered to himself, unsure why his youngest daughter sounded so desperate. "Okay, and why is that?"

"I made a friend at school during my first day and they helped me study. As a result, I not only passed the test, I did really well!" Itsuki passionately explained.

Ichika and Yotsuba were immediately confused as to why Itsuki was being vague about the fact she got a 'C'. Was she embarrassed, or maybe didn't want to show off? Also Ichika noted that Itsuki hid the fact her new friend was a boy. Meanwhile, Miku was frustrated at Itsuki's approach as her pride just wanted this "I scored higher than Miku in social studies" band-aid to be ripped off immediately.

As for Nino, she could only scowl knowing Itsuki was about to ask their dad to allow that Uesugi boy to be her full-time tutor. She could quickly deduce that wherever Itsuki and Miku had gone, they obviously hung out with that guy, as Itsuki was radiating that same aura of satisfied exhaustion she had only shown when she came back home at 10pm this past Wednesday.

That coupled with the fact Itsuki was neglecting to mention this friend was a "he" made her compelled to enact her elder sisterly duty and spill the beans.

"Papa, while Itsuki trusts him, I don't trust him. She only met him two days ago and while he did help get her get a good grade, we don't know enough about his motives and why he agreed so easily to help Itsuki," she interjected before her father could respond to Itsuki's statement. She also made sure to put an emphasis on every male pronoun she used so that he would understand her real concern without saying it outright.

Itsuki's face did very little to hide her feeling of betrayal as she felt an urge to run up to her older sister and start telling her off but she ultimately knew that no good would come of that, especially with their father still on the line.

"Oh...I see what's going on here," Mauro finally replied in a low and serious voice. "You know how I feel about you girls and dating at this age."

Itsuki retracted her previous thought. Her emotions convinced her it was perfectly acceptable for her to head over to Nino and slap her face. Yet, as if reading her intentions, Yotsuba grabbed Itsuki's arm after she took one step towards Nino, stopping her in her tracks. Unable to take her frustration out on the sister who instigated this current dilemma, Itsuki was forced to beg and appease her father.

"He's not like that Father!" Itsuki shouted before releasing herself from Yotsuba's grip. She then walked towards the phone to make sure he heard her loud and clear. "He's just a nerd interested in getting the most out of his education, just like me! I'll be perfectly fine; I trust him!"

The response from Mauro caught all five girls off guard, as his immediate reaction was a soft, melancholy chuckle. Their father was rarely one to show emotions, and the last time any of them could recall laughter of any kind coming from him was a year and half ago when he enjoyed listening to the sisters tell him about their first day of high school.

"Sorry Itsuki-kun, I don't mean to disregard your thoughts and feelings, it's just what you said stirred up some old memories." He then did his best to compose himself. While he never wanted to admit this to his daughters because of the implications it would create about his relationship with their mother, he knew his duty as not only their step-father but as their primary guardian forced him to reveal this aspect about himself so he could protect them from boys with ill intentions.

"This might be hard to comprehend, but I was a high school boy not too long ago, and I can confidently confirm there is no such thing as a high school boy involving himself with a cute girl with zero ulterior motives."

This left the Quintuplets in absolute silence, not believing what they were hearing from their father. Feeling like he needed to elaborate more even though he had hoped he wouldn't have to get specific, Mauro continued.

"By now you are well aware that your mother was my teacher in high school. While nothing serious came of our relationship until many, many years later, I'd feel confident to say she would have forgotten about me long ago if I hadn't turned myself into a bona fide teacher's pet. My point being that even though I did truly admire her as a teacher and wanted to help make her life easier, especially when it came to handling some of the more rambunctious kids at our school, even a straight-laced, anti-social, honor roll student like myself had ulterior motives. I knew a relationship had zero chance in the moment so I wanted to make sure she never forgot about me."

The girls just stood there dumbfounded, trying to process this huge bomb their dad detonated on them. Finally, Ichika spoke up.

"Wait, so I understand why you are against us hanging out with boys now, but why were you okay with it in middle school?"

"Probably a mistake on my part," Mauro admitted as he looked at his watch to make sure he still had any time left to answer their questions. He had two minutes left so he could entertain one or two. "I can only base this off my own personal experience but there are still boys in middle school who are completely innocent, so I trusted your judgement. High School boys are a completely different beast. I would never forgive myself if I failed to protect any of you from a toxic or abusive relationship. I promised your mother before she died that I would make sure each and every one of you would find a man who truly loved you and would care for you until their dying breath. You may grow to hate me for that, but I've made it my responsibility."

"So are you saying Miku and I can't see Fuutarou tomorrow to study for our math test?" Itsuki mustered through her overflowing tears. All the girls were feeling emotional to a certain extent from hearing this revelation, from Miku and Ichika wiping away damp eyes, to Itsuki basically sobbing. Yotsuba and Nino were someplace in-between.

Itsuki's question had caught Mauro by surprise. He looked at his watch again and knew he had to wrap this up and meet his patient, however he also knew that a simple "no you can't" would only cause him to grow later as that response would just elicit an eruption of complaints. So he made a quick compromise he felt was safe.

"If Miku is also there, then I'll allow it. However, Miku I would like you to please give me honest feedback on him and if you think he's truly innocent and can be trusted. If so, I will arrange to meet with him and we'll go from there. However, I expect a similar passing grade on this math test from you or else I won't even entertain the idea of letting him be your tutor. Now I have to go, I'll check in on Monday. Take care girls."

It wasn't until the five girls said their goodbyes and ended the call that Itsuki realized she never specifically told her Father that she got a "78". She had gotten so caught up in concealing the fact she wanted a teenage boy to tutor her that she forgot to give him a number as it wasn't something she would usually do. Maybe if she did, he would be a lot more willing to allow Fuutarou to be her personal tutor, but there was no use thinking about it now as her goal was to prove her friend was beneficial to her academic success.

The other three sisters had already turned their attention to Itsuki and Miku, as the duo became the main object of intrigue. However, Miku didn't feel like answering a barrage of questions or being stared at with judging eyes so she immediately started walking off to her room. Itsuki's eyes locked onto Miku's body as the third sister went up the stairs and into her room, where she shut the door and locked it. Itsuki could only let out a sigh as it appeared her study partnership with her new friend rested in her older sister's hands. Meanwhile, Miku laid on her bed and stared at the ceiling, unable to remove her father's warning from her head.

["There is no such thing as a high school boy involving himself with a cute girl with zero ulterior motives."]