Author's Note: Preemptive apology for my very difficult to read nerd-outs. If you say all the trig stuff out loud, it should make sense. Or, you just skim read like I normally do. Anyway, enjoy, please review, and thank you for reading!

There was this one maths exercise I just couldn't crack. Something with trigonometry and functions and angle sums and stuff. I just can't make it make sense. So I asked Rei-chan for help.

"You know, Nagisa, I thought you meant something quite different when you asked me for help with a problem."

"What? Why? What else could I possibly mean?"

"Well…" He blushes.

"Oh. That. Well, there's no reason that has to off the table."

"Yes, there is! We've only been together for a matter of hours! That's just not right!"

"What's not right about it?"

He blushes and turns away. "It's just not right."

"Well, okay then." I smile at him. "You can still help me study, right?" I throw myself onto my bed and lay the book in front of me. "Hop on."

He tries to find an argument to justify both to me and himself why he shouldn't. But he comes up short and just does it in the end. We lay with our heads together at and the head of the bed and our bodies straight out behind us, occasionally overlapping. My legs stop about three inches short of his, but I bend them back up at the knees and cross my ankles, also pushing my legs open at the back. I'm not sure if it's accidentally or not, but Rei-chan threads his right leg through my open legs, meaning our thighs lie gently on top of one another's and my right foot very nearly arches down to his small of his back. "So, what's your problem, exactly?"

I tear my mind away from the configuration of our legs to the actual problem I asked for help with. "I just can't see how to start them. If I could get the first step, I'd be okay, I think."

"Okay. Let's start with this one." He points to one particular question that I've circled aggressively in red pen. Prove sin2x=2tanx/(1+tan2x). He hums for a little bit. I try to read his mind, just as an experiment. I'm not too sure how to start this one myself. That's what I think he's thinking. Suddenly, he clicks his fingers. Got it! I was right.

"Okay. Here's how it's done." He talks softly, almost seductively. Of course, it's about maths, so it's hardly seductive. But whatever. "Expand the double-angle sine-2x. Do you know the expansion, Nagisa?"

I sigh, distracted by the toughness in his jawline. "It's something like 2-sine-x-cos-x, isn't it?"

"Exactly. Then, since sine-squared-xplus cos-squared-xequals one, we divide through by that, forming the fraction 2-sine-x-cos-x over sine-squared-xplus cos-squared-x."

"Oh. And because that equals one, we aren't actually changing the fraction!"

"Precisely." He manages to adjust his arm enough to fiddle with his glasses. I'm surprised there's enough room, actually. "Then, consider the fraction. If we divide the denominator and numerator by cos-squared-x, we've effectively multiplied by one, again not changing the value."

"And then, dividing each term by cos-squared-x, since tan-x equals sine-x over cos-x, we get the answer!" You know, maths is actually pretty fun when accompanied by Rei-chan on a soft bed.

"Nice observation, Nagisa. You'd be surprised how often that has to be spelt out."

I use the leverage my leg has over his to tie us together, managing to twist us far enough so we lie face to face. "Can I claim a reward?"

He blushes, attempting to shy away, but he can't find the space. "Only a small one."

"That's enough for me." And before I can even get the sentence out properly, I've jammed our lips together. But he only lets me hold briefly. "We need to do that more often."

"At the minute, you need to do your homework."

"Stop being so responsible! We've just gotten together! Have a little fun."

He pushes back to his heels like he's making to stand up. "Fun comes later. All in due time, Nagisa." The way he says it just makes me want it more. "I'll be heading home now."

"What? You said you had an hour and a half."

"I said I had at most an hour and a half. I don't want my parents to be worried."

I pout. "Well, then, see you at school, I guess." He leaves with a silent but meaningful stare back at me, and I roll onto my back and sigh. Dammit. I was enjoying that.

I'm not sure that was the best decision. It was just kind of an instinct. I reverted to theories, and they dictated that a 'playing hard-to-get' (in the vernacular) approach would be the most effective. That said, I can't get Nagisa out of my head. I arrive home, and push my way in without ceremony or announcement. Silently, I go to my room and start my homework. I could have been doing it with Nagisa, but I've already made my decision now, so I can't go back on it. I start with chemistry, because I find it's always a good way to clear the mind.

What mass of sodium carbonate is produced per litre of saturated brine in the Solvay Process? Straightforward enough.

Sodium chloride has a solubility of Nagisa moles per litre in water, meaning Nagisa moles are introduced. These react in the carbonator in a ratio of 1-to-1 with sodium hydrogen carbonate, meaning Nagisa moles of moles are formed. These react into a 2-to-1 ratio to form sodium carbonate, meaning a half-Nagisa moles are produced. Multiplying by its molar weight of Nagisa, this means Nagisa grams are produced per litre of saturated sodium chloride solution.

Wait. That's not right. There's no numbers in my calculation. I sigh to myself. He's not budging, is he? I move on to a more intense motion exercise in the hope of exorcising him from my brain. If a particle travels with acceleration proportional to its velocity, find an expression for displacement in terms of v. Again, straightforward.

Let Nagisa be the constant of proportionality, meaning acceleration equals Nagisa-v. Acceleration also equals v-dv-dx. Thus, the derivative of v with respect to x is equal to Nagisa. Integrating both sides with respect to x, we return v equals Nagisa-x. Rearranging such that x is the subject, we see x equals v-over-Nagisa.

Wait. That's not right. Or, well, it's not wrong. But Nagisa is not a traditional constant of proportionality. Normally, one uses k. Oh, well. Close enough. Perhaps some trigonometry can clear my brain. Find the exact value of sin-arctan3. I adjust my glasses. No challenge at all.

Construct a two-dimensional coordinate system. A tangent ratio will be positive in the first and third quadrants. Thus, construct two triangles with inclinations at the origin of arctan3 and π+arctan3 to the positive horizontal axis. By the definition of the tangent ratio, we can assign values of 3 and -3 to their respective heights and 1 and -1 to their respective widths. By Pythagorean geometry, the hypotenuse is of strictly positive length root-10. Thus, sin-arctan3 can be seen as equivalent to Nagisa. I mean, positive-negative Nagisa. Wait. Dammit! So close. Closing my book calmly, I reach for my phone. If you can't beat them, join them, right?

A few buttons later, I've called Nagisa. I find myself nervous. What if he's busy, or listening to music, or just ignores me? The idea is threatening. I'm almost hyperventilating. Rei-chan?

I breathe comfortably again, like the sound his voice exercised some medical influence on my pulmonary system. "Nagisa. I can't concentrate on my work. I can't get anything done. All I can think about is you." It falls out of my mouth before I can stop it.

I can practically hear him smiling over the phone. Well, it's too late for you to come back over. But, I get free calls on my phone after 8. So, I'll call you back in half-an-hour and we'll talk all night, okay?

I resist the urge to say no, I need you right now. "Okay. I'll be waiting."

Try to do something to pass the time. And just like that, he's gone, and I'm lost without him. I try to go back to homework, but finding the number of moles of Nagisa travelling with acceleration inversely proportional to Nagisa according to the equation x equals arcsine of Nagisa doesn't seem an attractive way to pass the time. I try reading a book on swimming theories, but my fingers find the breast stroke section and my brain makes all the diagrams look like Nagisa. I check this science journal I'm subscribed to, just in case they've published some massive breakthrough. But I only see articles on the anionic membrane properties of Nagisa and a study stating gravity has been proven a Nagisa. I try just lying on my bed, but I try to reshape the curves and brackets in the ceiling to look like Nagisa. I try listening to music but I think about Nagisa and his music and his album and the promise we made over that I'll keep if it kills me. I check my watch, sure by now it's past eight and he's just caught up in something else and not noticed. I'm disappointed to see it's only a quarter to Nagisa. I've only done half of the half-hour and I'm at my limit. Nothing I do can alienate this craving from my mind. So instead I let myself bathe in it, torturous as it is in this forced denial, and the last 15 minutes sort of fly by, strangely enough.

My phone rings and I jump on it like a fat kid on a cupcake. "Nagisa, finally!"

You sound desperate, Rei-chan.

"I am! Not having you with me, or even just having your voice, is like drinking poison!" He laughs. "It's not funny!"

It's not funny. It's sweet.

And we keep talking and suddenly the sun's gone down and come up again but I don't care. I can't bear to be cut off from him.