A/N: This is a story I've been plotting for a while, but I want to get through a few stories before I tackle this one. There were still some pivotal scenes that occur before the story officially starts, and I'll be very impressed if anyone can figure out the original inspiration for this one!

Sweet Part One

Professor Darington took the precious few minutes walking from his first class to his second to rub at his forehead and try a breathing exercise.

Not because he didn't love teaching; he was born for mathematics. But despite his own intelligence, it was still taking time to learn Japanese, let alone the finer math words that were needed to teach his students.

He also may as well have been transported to another world for how different Japan was from England. If he'd had his way, he'd have at least transferred to another English-speaking country, but he hadn't had much time to take any other offer than the first one.

He could feel his blood pressure begin to rise as he remembered the reason he'd had to leave England in such a hurry, but forced himself to calm down. It was only his first day of teaching, after all, and first impressions were everything.

Yes, his students were mere high schoolers instead of college students, but it would not hurt to use this position as a stepping stone to get comfortable in this new country and used to its customs before looking for greener pastures. He could do this, it was only for a few years.

Forcing himself to straighten up and plaster on a wide smile, he slid open the door and walked in like a king about to hold court. "Good morning, class," he greeted the students as he gave them a once over without really looking at any of them. "My name is Professor Darington, I will be your mathematics teacher this second half of the year, and hopefully longer."

No need to alert anyone that he wasn't interested in staying. He should just be grateful that the position was open when he needed one in a hurry.

"You will have to indulge me since I am still learning your language, but I've been informed that all of you have been taught enough English to be able to follow along," he continued as he set his bag on the desk and helped himself to the chalk at the board.

"Before we begin, I would like to probe your minds to see what equations you can already do so that I neither cover what you've already learned or jump too far ahead of where you can perform. So yes, the dreaded 'pop quiz'."

A handful of the students groaned, and there was an awful lot of whispering behind his back as the large man wrote what he considered a basic formula on the board.

After completing it, he turned to give the still-chattering students a disapproving glare. "Is there something I should be informed of?"

A lot of the students turned to one girl sitting by the window, and a few of them seemed to be begging a question of her.

Professor Darington took a closer look at this young lady. She had the softest doe brown eyes he had ever seen, and her dark brown hair was swept away from her face by a simple ponytail. She was no extraordinary beauty, but…

It was strangely hard to take his eyes off her pleasant features.

She blushed at all the attention being centered on her, but she took in a breath before raising her hand. "Professor, you are correct that English is taught here," she agreed with a flawless American accent, though he couldn't think of the exact region it hailed from off the top of his head. "But that doesn't mean that every student will be able to follow your instructions, especially when it comes to the finer math distinctions that aren't commonly taught in English class. With your permission, may I translate everything you say so that your lessons don't have to suffer from a language barrier?"

Her voice was as sweet and gentle as a dove. He had to admit, if he was going to have to make do with translators, he could handle listening to this one.

The professor took one look at the problem he had written on the board and held out his chalk to her. "Solve this problem for me," he directed as a small test.

Pleasant voice or not, it wouldn't do much good if he had to explain all the formulas to her first.

She blushed a little harder, but obediently stood up from her seat, walked forward to accept the chalk, and got right to work.

He was pleased that she didn't need to make many side notes to solve it. He was even more pleased that she solved it correctly and with quiet confidence before setting the chalk back in its place.

"This formula is about where Nori-sensei left off before his accident," she offered him with a small bow after solving the problem. "The next chapter was about how to apply the Pythagorean theorem to designing buildings and standard inventions if you feel like skipping the pop quiz. Nori-sensei already had me tutoring anyone that needs extra help, and I am still willing to do so."

Professor Darington couldn't hold back a beaming smile that he had such a good student under his jurisdiction. "Very well. We'll skip the pop quiz and get right into the new material. Your name?" he asked just as she was turning to walk back to her desk amidst a few relieved sighs as the handful of other students passed on the good news to the ones that didn't understand the exchange.

"Yoshioka Haru, Professor," she introduced herself with another small bow, but did return to her seat amidst the other students grinning and whispering likely thanks to her.

Professor. The title he earned sounded heavenly from her lips. He forced himself to forget about it as he erased the board to start a new lecture, though it took a few tries until he was comfortable stopping between sentences so that Yoshioka could translate.

No. Her name was Haru, the family name came first here. The minute he had the students working on a new problem, he wrote down the name so that he could find out more later.

It took until fifth period, but he was able to use the teacher's office and hook into the main frame from his laptop, a small indulgence so that he didn't have to change the language on whichever computer he used just to understand.

Yoshioka Haru, he was pleased to see, was a hardworking student in spite of her impressive tardy record. Her other teachers had left notes on her that made it clear she was every bit as sweet as his first impression of her.

In all honesty, it made him feel less isolated that she knew his mother tongue like her own. But it was clear that she didn't learn English in school, since she was not only excused from those classes but accrued extra credit by tutoring in the language to offset said tardy record.

"What are you looking at?" someone asked in barely legible English, making the professor look up to see who it was.

He didn't recognize the man, but that was hardly a surprise since most Japanese still looked the same to him. "I had a very helpful student in second period. I want to know more," he stated carefully and clearly in case this man also taught her.

The man rubbed his mustache thoughtfully before smiling. "Was it our little Haru?" he asked out of the blue. "Her English is very good."

"Yes, I've noticed. How did she learn it so well?" the professor asked, a bit bemused that the man needed no further hints to her identity.

The man shrugged while still smiling. "Her father used to be American before he came here and married Haru's mother. I hear tale that her mother had to threaten him to speak English to Haru since he loved Japan so much."

Darington had no choice but to laugh at that with the man. "She tutors in math and English, but does she tutor anything else?"

"Hai, our Haru is very clever. I do not say that she is popular, but she is highly…" he broke off, thinking hard for the right word in English.

"Respected?" the professor offered, feeling even more pleased with this student.

"Not sure of that word- honored!" he suddenly remembered with a smile. "Haru is not one to demand it, but she is very honored by her classmates. She could be great leader if she chose it. Only flaw is always in detention for coming late to school. Detention is no after school activity, many clubs would have her if she came on time."

Darington blinked. "Why does she keep coming late to school?" he couldn't resist asking, but the man raised his hands to say he didn't know either.

"Juno-sensei, he can set a watch for when she comes in after everyone else. He doesn't even get mad anymore, has to watch blood pressure."

"I see," the professor admitted, though he was now even more intrigued than before. He remembered the talk with the principal about how his reputation would go up with the other teachers if he took some detention shifts. It was barely more than a babysitting job while students hopefully worked on homework, but…

He was now very interested in such a menial task, if it meant seeing more of 'Little Haru'.