Ritsuka trudged down the street, completely exhausted from a long day at school. Well, college, but same difference. Regardless, he was tired, and his day was still not over yet; he had some assignments that he needed to finish up.

"It should be around here…" Ritsuka muttered to himself as he glanced up at the street sign. He thinks he's reading the sign right; he still doesn't have a complete 100% grasp on French yet.

It was a bit of a long story on how he ended up living in France so to put it as simply as possible, his dad got a sweet new job offer about six months back, but it necessitated a move to Europe. Ritsuka was fortunate enough that he was finishing up his last year of high school before they had to move. His younger sister was not so lucky and had been rather quiet these past few weeks after the actual move.

Where was he? Oh yeah, he was looking for that cafe one of his new friends had recommended to him.

He could try asking around for directions but honestly, he was not too confident in speaking French yet. And so, Ritsuka resolved to find the shop on his own which, thankfully, did not take too long.

The cafe was a quiet little place from the outside at the end of a small alley. The only reason he noticed it was thanks to the two tables outside it. According to his friend, it was a great place to do some work thanks to being far from the main road.

Ritsuka reached for the doorknob and twisted it before opening the door a bit and peeking in.

"Bienvenue monsieur. Entrez, nous sommes ouverts aux affaires."

It was then that Ritsuka regretted coming alone, massively regretted it. He understood the first part of the waiter's greeting, he was saying "Welcome sir." But the other part? The guy could've insulted him (which probably wasn't the case) and Ritsuka wouldn't have been the wiser.

Ritsuka could understand the shorter sentences without too many issues, but he had a hard time keeping up when it came to longer ones.

So context clues: the waiter had bowed to him and was gesturing at an empty table (which wasn't really saying much, there was only one other person here besides them and the man tending the counter). Judging from that, Ritsuka thought he was telling him to take a seat.

"Je vous remercie," Ritsuka politely thanked the waiter in French, one of the few things he can confidently say, before moving to the gestured table which was next to the only other occupied table.

"Voici le menu monsieur. Je reviendrai dans quelques minutes pour prende votre commande." The waiter placed the menu on the table before promptly leaving Ritsuka alone.

"Hmm…" Ritsuka hummed as he read the menu. He understood most of it, it was stuff one would expect from a cafe like coffee, snacks, and such, but there were a couple of longer ones that he didn't entirely translate. "Uh… this is hard…". He quietly groaned to himself, unintentionally slipping into his native language while rubbing his temples, feeling a minor headache coming.

It was his own fault though so he didn't complain too much. Besides, he was mainly here to do his schoolwork and would just be ordering a drink and some snacks. Reaching into his bag, he took out his handwritten literature notes and then some and was about to start working when—

"Vous êtes…?" Ritsuka heard someone mutter from the table next to him. Glancing in that direction, he saw the young woman that was the only other customer in the small cafe.

"Ah! Monsieur Fujimaru!" The blue-haired gave Ritsuka a warm smile upon recognizing him. "Je pensais que c'était toi. Quelles sont les chances de nous rencontrer ici?"

Ritsuka, for his part, also recognized her and why wouldn't he? Ciel stood out in a crowd thanks to her blue hair which she claims is completely natural. She also had a reputation around the campus for being more reliable than some of the teachers at times.

He, meanwhile, only had the reputation of being a foreigner that couldn't really speak French too well. It's not that bad of a reputation and he's working to fix the language barrier, but he did not quite catch what Ciel had said.

"Ur…" It took Ritsuka a couple of seconds to figure out what to say. "Bonjour, ça me fait plaisir de te voir." He slowly greeted her in a formal tone.

"Êtes-vous aussi ici pour faire vos devoirs ?" She asked him while still smiling, most likely unaware that Ritsuka only caught half that sentence.

"Uh… Tu peux me redire ça ?" Ritsuka asked her to repeat that again. Again, it was something he could say without too much issue.

Ciel, however, just giggled a bit before saying something surprising. "Is this better?" She asked in Japanese before laughing at his shocked reaction. "You weren't to hear a native Frenchwoman speak Japanese so fluently, weren't you?"

"Ye—Yeah," Ritsuka stuttered. "Um, what are you doing here?"

"Same reason as you are, I assume; for school," she answered cheerfully. "Do you want some help? I have some time to spare."

"No need, I can do this on my own." Honestly, he refused her offer because he didn't want to be a bother.

"You sure? 'Cause I spot a couple of mistakes in that," Ciel said, glancing at his notes. "A lot of mistakes, actually."

Ritsuka didn't respond and just blushed in embarrassment while trying to cover up his notes— much to Ciel's amusement.

"You sure you don't want any help?"

"...es plea…"

"What was that?" Ciel smirked, already knowing what he mumbled.

"Yes please," Ritsuka relented, figuring that he'd just make it harder on him if he continued to refuse.

With his answer, a confident smile appeared on her face. "Don't worry, Fujimaru! With my help, you'll be passing with flying colours!"

Oh, what did he get himself into….


A/N: stares at document Yeah, Ritsuka... same...

Anyway, assuming I don't get murdered for this, this story may end up being multi-chaptered. Might also stay as a one-shot forever but we'll see.