"Deep breaths." Nino chanted mentally to herself, she was leaning up against her bedroom door with a furious blush on her cheeks. She couldn't remember the last time she had been this embarrassed. How was she supposed to know that he would be there when she had shouted out what she had? Why was he even here!? Why had Itsuki brought him here, weren't they supposed to be getting their new tutor today? Gah! How was she supposed to make a good impression when her first one was like some degenerate love-struck girl who only saw looks! "This sucks." She pouted lightly to herself as she slid down the door to where she pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and hugging them as she rested her chin on her knees.
She had a plan to wring as much information out of Itsuki as possible before beginning her approach. She didn't want to walk into trouble and wanted to know what Itsuki knew, her sister had trusted him enough to spend hours alone with him in the library, so he couldn't be that dangerous but still this was totally her first time in such a situation, she wasn't gutsy enough to just approach a guy but this opportunity was too good to pass up, he was a perfect match. Itsuki was generally a good judge of character and wouldn't put herself into a situation she wasn't comfortable in.
She heard movement outside her door, hearing the voices of her sisters as they headed for their respective rooms. Nino heard Itsuki's door close, followed by Yotsuba's, Miku's, and finally Ichika's at the end of the hall next to her room. But where was the hottie? Did he leave? Quickly getting to her feet she cracked the door open peering out. Nervously she exited her room glancing both ways before moving over to the balcony that overlooked their living room, immediacy she crouched back down as she spotted the teenage boy in their living room, all alone. Her face flushed once more, he was still here! How was she supposed to deal with this!
"What are you doing?" Nino let out a slight 'eep' as she rounded on Itsuki who had just walked out of her room, she hadn't even gone to change from her school uniform, but rather to put her bag away and grab some studying supplies. "Stop being rude, come down and introduce yourself to Ichigo." Nino blinked as Itsuki headed down the stairs as Nino peered over the balcony, despite it being glass and see-through, to stare down at the orange-haired teen who looked up seeing Itsuki coming down the stairs.
"That's a cute name." Nino whispered quietly, a slight blush coming to her face. "Total hottie with a cute name, that's my type! Why hadn't Itsuki told me he had such a cute name!?"
"Pervert, stalker." Nino whipped around to where Miku was standing behind her. "You're creeping me out, go do your perverted antics elsewhere, you're bothering me."
"What'd you say!?" Nino growled. "Go back to your hovel, I can already smell whatever stench is wafting out from in there." Miku narrowed her eyes before Yotsuba's door flew open, crashing against the wall surprising both girls as Yotsuba dashed out and headed for the stairs, both Nino and Miku were surprised she had her studying materials with her. "Eh, Yotsuba?" The girl skidded to a halt at the top of the stairs and looked back at the two with a determined look on her face.
"We can't leave Itsuki unprotected from such a beast!" She declared. "He's scary looking!"
"They do know I can hear them right?" Ichigo questioned as he sat down at the table across from Itsuki who hung her head.
"I'm sorry." Itsuki apologized.
"Still, it'd probably be best if we study somewhere else, but I know if we do it here we'll be more productive, hopefully." He explained as he placed his book bag down on the table, pulling some papers out. That was before a new set of studying materials were slammed down on the table top causing both Ichigo and Itsuki to look up to see Yotsuba standing there looking across at Ichigo, a determined look in her eyes.
"Ichigo, this is Yotsuba." Itsuki introduced her sister to him.
"Hi." Ichigo greeted awkwardly as he glanced at Itsuki, even though she wasn't sure as to why she was giving him that blank stare.
"Yotsuba?" Itsuki questioned as she stood up, moving over to her sister before pausing, the girl was trembling. Yotsuba slowly turned her gaze to Itsuki in desperation, tears welling up in her eyes.
"He's scary." Ichigo groaned burying his face in his hand.
"He's really not that scary." Itsuki began, getting Yotsuba to sit down. "Trust me, Ichigo's really nice and thoughtful." She assured. "He helped me out a lot yesterday when we were studying together, just give him a go and look past his looks." She finished with a smile towards Ichigo.
"He won't try to beat me up?" Yotsuba asked as Itsuki shifted nervously, her gaze turning back to her with an awkward smile.
"I don't think he will." She laughed awkwardly causing Ichigo's eyebrow to twitch, sensing his annoyance she looked up. "Are you two coming down to study?" Itsuki questioned, as Ichigo and Yotsuba followed her gaze to see Miku standing while Nino was crouched down behind the glass railing, clearly visible. Ichigo had to wonder just what it was she was doing, he had noticed her first when she had snuck out of her room but had made a point not to make a show of it, she was obviously trying to observe him.
"No, I won't bother." Miku began as she folded her arms, glaring down at Ichigo who raised an eyebrow, why the hostility? "How much can he even teach us?" She continued. "He's the same age as us, right? What's dad even thinking about getting a tutor like this? There has to be someone better that can teach us than a high school student."
"Miku, that's rude!" Itsuki called up at her but Miku just turned and walked back into her room, closing the door behind her. "Sorry about Miku." Itsuki apologized again.
"Don't worry about it." Ichigo shrugged.
"What about you Nino?" Itsuki questioned causing the girl to blink as she raised up, peering over the balcony. "Ichigo's our new tutor." She explained, Nino, having run off to her room before she could learn anything about why Ichigo was here. She looked from Itsuki to Ichigo, lips pursed as she tried to decide on what to do, on one hand, there was a total hunk below, but that would mean she would have to go down and study. Huffing, she flicked her hair back and began to walk toward the stairs.
"I'm hungry, I'm going to make a snack." She stated. Itsuki frowned as she watched Nino walk down the stairs, Miku had outright refused and Nino didn't seem like she wanted to study, Yotsuba looked too nervous to study, and knowing Ichika, she was probably already back in bed. Nino walked past them and towards the kitchen, her eyes trailing Ichigo before she entered.
"Alright, I think this is the best we got today." Itsuki began causing Ichigo to raise an eyebrow. "Ichika works pretty late sometimes so she sleeps in the afternoons after school. We should probably just let her be."
"Hey, don't rule me out just yet." Ichika smiled as she walked from her room, having dressed from her school outfit into some pants and a simple shirt. "I wouldn't miss this for the world." She continued as she walked down the stairs, Itsuki frowning as she saw Ichika wasn't bringing anything to study with, no doubt the eldest among them just wanted to see what all the fuss was about and probably tease her more about yesterday. It'd probably be better if she just went and slept.
"You can't sit next to me Ichika!" Yotsuba declared, gesturing to the empty seat between her and Ichigo, Itsuki had to wonder if she was using Ichika as a human shield. Ichika took the offered seat, smiling all the while as she leaned her head on her hand, staring across at Itsuki with a smile. Clearing her throat, Itsuki put on her glasses before turning to Ichigo.
"Right..." Ichigo began, feeling like this was more awkward than it should have been. Shouldn't someone have given him the heads up that he'd be teaching five instead of one? The only notion he had that there was more than one was the pay and how was he supposed to figure it out from that, neither Ikumi nor their father had even mentioned it to him. "I wasn't expecting five, so I only made one set of questions." He began.
"You weren't expecting five of us?" Ichika questioned.
"No, I thought there was only going to be a single student, seems like your old man isn't great with the details." He added as he handed over the questions to Itsuki. "Like I said, their first-year middle school midterms." He explained as Itsuki looked them all over, a smile coming to her face. She knew these questions.
"How'd you get those?" Ichika asked curiously. "And why middle school questions?"
"Itsuki and I figured yesterday that's where her level is at right now." Ichigo began as he turned to Itsuki. "A bit better to understand?"
"Yes! I remember these." She beamed happily.
"Good, we'll work from there." Ichigo nodded although now he had to figure out where the other four stood. Sensing Ichika's gaze still on him he sighed gently before answering her other question. "I've got two little sisters who started middle school this year, I had one of them send them over to me." He explained. "Tomorrow, I'll go find a textbook so we can get a better grip on some math formulas and other subjects, if we work hard at it we should be able to get through the topics to get you up to date fairly quickly, long before our next exam." He admitted, getting a determined nod from Itsuki.
"So you're a big brother huh? I'm the eldest among us." Ichika told him with a smile causing Ichigo to glance at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What's with the twenty questions." Ichigo scowled causing Yotsuba to 'eep' before raising her notebook to cover her face, hiding behind it.
"What's the harm in getting to know one another, you're our teacher now, right teach?." Ichika smiled. "Seems like you and Itsuki got real acquainted yesterday if the rumors around the school are anything to go by!" She laughed only to stop midway, shocked at the clear pissed expression that crossed Ichigo's face, his scowl increasing tenfold. Yotsuba was right, he was scary! No wonder there were so many rumors going around school about him.
After the small interaction they had shared at lunch, she had begun to ask other students about who he was, mostly to make sure Itsuki was okay which led to her discovering that Sugisaki-sensei had caught them in the library after hours. But there were so many rumors going around about the mysterious orange-haired transfer student, it was insane. Sure Ichika didn't believe half of the really out there ones, but the others might not be so false.
"That was just a misunderstanding!" Itsuki defended, waving her hands in front of herself, flushing at what the teacher had said when he had caught them in the library. She didn't know that a rumor had begun to spread already, Ichigo had been right! "Sugisaki-sensei got the wrong impression! We were just studying, that's all! Studying!" She cried embarrassed before a plate of cookies slammed down beside her causing Itsuki to jump in surprise as she looked up to see Nino staring down at her with a cold expression causing Itsuki to blink in surprise. It was as if she'd upset Nino somehow, she didn't recall doing anything to upset her.
"Don't eat too many, you'll get fat." Itsuki's jaw dropped at Nino's declaration who huffed and walked back to the kitchen.
"That's so mean Nino!" Yotsuba cried as Ichika laughed, Itsuki pouting as she grabbed a handful of cookies mumbling that her weight was just fine.
Ichigo had to pause as he watched the interactions between the sisters with a slightly conflicted look on his face, did he need to expect the weird mood changes from Yuzu and Karin once they hit high school? He'd been here a while now and they still hadn't even started studying yet. At least Nino had joined the table, without any study materials and had just added more snacks.
Honestly, Ichigo didn't think that they'd be getting any studying done today. He really hadn't been expecting to tutor five students, one or two would have been manageable, could he actually pull this off? Not to mention that their determination to study seemed to be non-existent apart from Itsuki. How the hell was he supposed to pull this off?
"Looks like you've already given up." Ichika grinned at him. "Think we're a lost cause already? I don't blame you." Ichigo frowned before lifting his hand up, before flicking her in the forehead snapping her eyes wide open in shock as he stood up. "You're the oldest." He told her, Ichika unable to look away from his eyes, they were so serious. "Set a better example for your younger siblings." He began as he packed his books away, Ichika raising a hand to her forehead with a slight pout at being lectured.
"Eh, you're leaving?" Nino questioned with wide eyes causing Ichigo to raise an eyebrow at her, why was so she upset? "Not that I care." She huffed, folding her arms and looking away.
"No point in me staying if no studying is going to get done." He told them. "I'll be back tomorrow, I'll write up some mock tests to see where the rest of you stand as I did with Itsuki." He explained. "Itsuki, look over those questions and I'll test you on that first thing tomorrow and move on from there." He added.
"R-Right! I'll do my best!" Itsuki nodded eyes full of determination. Ichigo glanced over the four seated around the table and sighed, he had his work cut out for him if this experience was anything to go by, one of them hadn't even come down from her room. Ichigo walked towards the entrance to the house, raising his hand up in farewell. Once the sound of the door closed, Yotsuba collapsed down on the tabletop with a low groan.
"He's really scary."
"There, there." Ichika cooed patting Yotsuba atop the head.
"Our children will be beautiful." Nino let out a dreamy sigh catching the attention of her three present sisters, even Yotsuba had shot her head up in surprise. All three simply stared at Nino in shock as she had a love-struck expression on her face, already off in fantasy land.
"""EH!"""
