[1/2] Begrudge Me Your Work [Backlogged]
Characters: Tetsu Kiri and Kuran Kaname
Date: August 19th
Location: History Class at the Academy
Rating/Warnings: PG
Summary: Kiri and Kaname are paired up to do a project together. Insert hell here. <3
Nine o'clock. It wasn't late, necessarily, but the odd schedule made everything feel a little off. Kaname sighed, leaning against his arm as he flipped through the pages of the book he was currently reading. It didn't hold his interest - his thoughts had drifted elsewhere -, but it was amusing at how his inattention agitated the history teacher.
Ah, history. The Kuran didn't really need to take such a subject - personal experience was far better than what could be gleaned from textbooks -, but still... It was interesting to see what the humans thought of their history, to test just how accurate they were.
The teacher shot some meaningless question in his direction - some nonsense about the late Byzantine Empire's fall -, in the hopes of catching the pureblood off guard.
"Twelve-oh-four," he answered, then flipped another page. The teacher, begrudgingly, moved on.
There weren't many Night Class students in this class - history wasn't a subject most would take again, without proper motivation -, but it was almost... refreshing, to distance himself from the responsibilities which surrounded him when he was with his peers.
He leaned more heavily on his hand, then turned the page, the sound of paper scraping against paper a silent backdrop to the teacher's droning voice.
Kiri had her pencil in her mouth, letting it bob up and down while she manipulated the eraser end with her tongue. Although it looked as if she was staring off into space, she was actually paying close attention. She loved history more than any other subject, and while the teacher kept getting distracted by Kuran Kaname, he actually had pretty interesting lectures.
However, the fact that the supposedly great Kaname was disrespecting the teacher--not in a direct way, of course--kind of pissed her off. He could at least be kind and try to humor the teacher by pretending he was listening, but he wouldn't even do that.
If he wasn't going to take much interest in the course, why even take it in the first place? It's not like upperclassmen have it as a required subject. Kiri was sure she'd enjoy the class much more if the room didn't wreak of...him.
Although, she was a few rows behind him--a safe distance away, and as long as he kept away from her, she'd be fine.
She hoped.
He felt eyes on him.
Kaname paused mid-page turn, his middle finger and thumb brushing across the page lightly, before letting it drop downwards to settle with the other sheets of paper.
He was used to feeling eyes on him, actually. The entire Night Class was. Humans... had a tendency to stare, no arrogance intended in that statement. It was really just a clever design of their character, of their species. Vampires were made to be enticing - to draw you in by scent and sight, then take advantage of your compliance when the time was right...
Shaking thoughts of blood and drink away, the brunette lifted his gaze to glance at what the teacher was writing on the blackboard, then looked back down.
Still, the feeling remained, and when Kaname really tried to focus on it, he found that there was something different in this particular gaze.
Something angry.
He glanced up again, waited a few seconds, then looked over his shoulder to try and find the source of this new... oddity.
Oh shit.
He had caught her staring. And here she was hoping to burn a hole through the back of his head and be done with it. She narrowed her eyes at him, she wasn't going to turn around and pretend she hadn't been looking--she had, there was no way of denying that.
She glanced up to make sure the teacher wasn't looking, and when she was sure it was safe, she looked back at Kaname and smiled before flipping him off.
...This was new.
Kaname had been preparing his best civil smile, the hint of it playing on the edge of his lips, when the girl staring at him did something wholly unexpected.
He'd never been given the bird before, and so could only blink when he realized it was directed towards him, and not some other person around him. He pondered over what he could have possibly done to have garnered such a reaction - were humans so attached to their privacy that simply looking back at them when one was staring was considered taboo?
He didn't know, but the smile froze midway on his face, either way, and instead fell to a more confused look. Not angry - rarely angry, actually, unless someone threatened what he held dear to him -, only... intrigued.
Humans were so interesting.
...Okay. She had flipped him off, and yet he was still looking at her. You would think that someone giving you the bird would be a hint at leave me alone.
She boredly switched from her middle finger to her index finger and swirled it around, implying that Kaname should take a hint and turn around. She didn't want to look at his face more than she had to.
Maybe the pretty boy was shocked that someone actually didn't like him.
"Kuran Kaname!" His attention had been elsewhere for too long, and now the teacher was righteously angry. Tilting his head slightly in response to the girl's obvious dismissal, the Night Class student turned back around to face the board.
His mood was calm, passive, but it didn't seem to help improve the professor's own temper. The scraggly old man - human, who's demeanor seemed to always hint at a touch of arrogance, and who's face looked as old and dusty as the subject he taught - slit his eyes, then cracked the piece of chalk he had been holding on his wooden desk. It broke into two pieces, and this only seemed to fuel his rage.
Of course, Kaname hadn't been solely responsible for this little outburst. The entire classes - save for a select few - had been acting just as bored. Some students in the back had even fallen asleep! The brunette himself was only occupying his mind with more important things. He could still focus on what the teacher was saying - could recite his lecture right back to him, if he tried -, only... It was in his nature to appear nonchalant.
A bad habit, one might say.
He didn't respond to the old man's sharp rebuke, but instead leaned forward on his elbows. The teacher ignored this, and ripped open one of the drawers in his desk, sifting through a few files before pulling out an exceptionally large one.
"Alright class," he said, glare snapping towards the people who had fallen asleep, his silent authority enough to wake them up. "Since everyone has been paying such good attention, I've got a little surprise for you."
Oh, his sarcasm knew no bounds.
Another moment, and he had the file opened to a certain set of papers, and was meticulously pulling each one out, settling it in order in front of him. He beckoned a student from the front towards his desk, then sent her off to make copies of whatever he had pulled out.
"We're doing a group project," he stated, looking back towards the class. "And it will count for forty percent of your grade."
'Forty percent? Seriously?'
She knew that a lot of people were being disrespectful to him--sleeping in class, chatting, passing notes...
A couple in the back corner was even making out.
But to spring a project on them that was worth so much of their grade, while knowing that the class hadn't been paying any attention to him...
It was cruel.
Kiri had nothing to worry about, though. She had been listening the entire time, she even had taken thorough notes on everything the teacher had said. He really was a good teacher--he just wasn't respected, and the fact that no one but her seemed to listen to his lecture almost made her sad.
'I think I'm going to like this class.' While, usually, a teacher that seemed to be revengeful and mean was something Kiri would detest...this teacher seemed to share her hatred for Kuran Kaname. That would put anyone on her Love-List.
Forty percent.
It seemed unnecessarily cruel, but didn't affect Kaname in the least. He knew the material well, despite his lack of attention. The only problem that he could foresee was the fact that this would be a group project. Which meant it took time out of his already busy schedule to work with a human on something he already knew.
He inhaled deeply, then exhaled in one long, slow breath.
It would be a pain, of course, to deal with the... fawning. Usually the prefects kept the Day Class a safe enough distance away from the Night Class. But here, the goal was to integrate, so such a thing as personal space had become... nearly nonexistent.
The girl who had copied off those papers came back, her face a bit downcast - no doubt she had taken a glimpse at the assignment. The teacher happily split the stack in two, then beckoned another student forth and had them pass out the packet.
"I'll be assigning your groups," the man began as he rifled through another paper on his desk, ignoring the groans of protest that accompanied this declaration. "So please listen carefully as a call your name..."
Assigned groups? She really didn't like the sound of that. Kiri only got along with a select group of people.
When people don't really know her, she comes off as a straight-forward in-your-face bitch. But people who actually take the time to talk to her and get to know her tend to, eventually, fall under her unusual charms.
They even come to realize that her blunt honesty is the best thing about her.
Knowing this, being able to select her partner is usually the best situation for her--it gives her the chance to call upon the few that really know her and shy away from those she knows she'd fail to communicate with.
But, she guessed she'd survive, as long as her partner wasn't a girl. Or worse...
Kuran Kaname.
He smiled politely at the girl who handed him his paper. She blushed, then looked away quickly - a natural reaction that he had grown used to -, so he looked away as well.
It was a list.
Kaname tilted his head to the side, pondering over this for a moment, before letting his gaze travel back to the front of the classroom. It was already fairly obvious what they would be doing. The paper was simply a list of subjects, and one could assume that this meant you could choose your own from the many stated on the page.
"Kuran Kaname." It was the second time the teacher had called his name today, and the pureblood tilted his head in the man's direction.
He seemed like he was about to say something, then changed his mind and rifled through another set of papers in front of him.
"Hmm... no... That won't do..." the professor mumbled to himself, scratching at his balding head.
"Ah! Here." He glanced up, meeting the Night Class student with a piercing grey-eyed gaze.
"Kuran-kun," the inflection on that last part did not escape the brunette's notice. "You will be paired with Tetsu-chan."
When Kiri heard her name get called in the same sentence as Kuran Kaname, she did the only thing she could do.
She gasped with shock.
And with this gasp, the pencil she had been playing with in her mouth began to slide down her throat. Her eyes widened and she started coughing.
'Shit, Shit, SHIT.'
She backed up and her chair hit the desk behind her--hard--which caused her, and her chair, to fall to the ground. The hacks got louder and she quickly maneuvered to her knee's, hoping gravity was on her side, until she felt the pencil safely slide out of her mouth and fell on the floor.
'I just almost fucking DIED.'
Shakily, she reached over to her desk and slammed her hand down, slowly lifting herself up enough so that her head was visible. She raised her hand, and in a raspy voice said, "S-sensei...I-I would l-like a new...partner..."
The entire classroom turned to watch as one of their own started dying. Kaname lifted out of his chair, his body tense, brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of what was happening. Did she just swallow her pencil?
He took a step forward, then paused when her hacking and wheezing began to die down. His eyes were blank for the most part, but a hint of concern shone through.
"Are you alright?" Kaname asked, voice low and smooth, as if acting calm would keep the rest of the classroom - and herself - calm as well.
She ignored him--blatantly, in fact. She, unfairly, was blaming him for the fact she almost choked on her pencil, even though she was the one who had been playing with it in her mouth.
She figured it was a chain of events.
She was playing with her pencil, Kaname felt her staring with hatred and looked, she flipped him off, Kaname manipulated the universe so that the teacher would say something shocking, Kiri choked, and, if Kaname got his way, would have died.
She didn't want to fall to the hands of this devil in human form. Hopefully, hopefully, the teacher would sympathize with her and let her off.
...
Hopefully.
Her brush off didn't affect him much. It was more interesting to see a spiteful human, than to avoid a fangirl.
"Tetsu-chan, are you quite alright?" The teacher sounded a bit annoyed - no doubt he thought it was a show of theatrics, considering she was fine now. This was magnified by the fact that he didn't wait for an answer.
"And why would you want to switch partners?" It sounded more like he was saying, 'And why would you defy my logic?'.
Kaname looked on, slowly settling himself back down in his seat, his eyes still trained on the girl.
She coughed again--it felt like she swallowed the tip of her pencil--and she resisted the urge to narrow her eyes at her teacher. Although he asked her if she was alright, he didn't wait for a response nor did he even sound like he cared.
"Y-yes sir, I'm fine..." She coughed once more, fixing her seat and settling herself down slowly. "I...I don't really...feel that Kaname and I will be...suitable partners."
She took her time while saying this, choosing her words carefully as she did so. Even though she's usually blunt, she respects her teachers, and wouldn't want to offend them.
And, of course, she didn't want detention.
The teacher blinked, then settled his hands in front of him, on the desk.
"And why is that?"
Kaname wasn't bothered by it, either way, but he was still curious as to her answer, and so continued to watch her carefully.
'You know what. I just almost died, who gives a fuck if I get detention.'
She sighed, leaning back in her chair and running a hand through her hair. "I hate him."
The teacher seemed unfazed, though the rest of the classroom stared in disbelief. Hate? Kuran Kaname? But... how?
"Well," the old man glanced towards Kaname, who's face remained impassive, though his eyes told a different story. "I paired you together because you two have the highest scores in the classroom. With anyone else, either one or the other would be doing all the work." His words sounded final, and as he turned back towards what he was busying himself with before, it seemed apparent that he wouldn't be changing his mind.
Kaname finally turned back around to face the front of the classroom, his gaze disinterested.
After a few more moments, the teacher looked up at his students, seemingly analyzing their every move.
"Alright now, students. Get into your groups, and then I'll explain the details of your assignment."
He had said no. Fuck.
...
But...Kiri was never one to take no for an answer.
She rose her hand again and, without waiting to be called on, said, "Sensei, I'm sorry but isn't it also unfair to group the two kids with the best grades together, while kids with poorer grades are left with each other and don't have the proper assistance they might require?"
Alright, he had had enough. Turning slightly in his seat, Kaname beat the teacher to any answer he might have given.
"Despite your unfounded dislike of me," he began, his tone completely calm, as if they were talking about the weather, and not how much this one girl loathed his very being. "It is disrespectful to contradict the teacher in such a manner."
Blunt, as ever, and uncaring that they were in a crowd.
She glared at him. His saying this only increased her dislike of him by at least twenty fold.
"You have no right to preach to me, Kuran. During class you were spacing out, looking as if you weren't even listening to the teacher. That is more disrespectful than asking for a partner change when I believe I won't be able to work well with the one I have been assigned." Her voice raised slightly, but she was holding back as best she could.
This was really annoying.
He smiled, then. It was practically a mockery, but... not quite. It's not that his smile wasn't genuine... That's just how his smiles were. There, but far away. Distant, but oddly personal.
"I was listening," he said offhandedly, his voice far from petulant. It wasn't like he was trying to prove something to her, after all. He gestured with a wave of the hand, indicating the fact that they were interrupting class at this moment - everyone else's attention was focused on their little conversation.
"Now, will you join me, or would you prefer I go to you?"
Her glare worsened. "Neither." She didn't want to work with him.
In all honesty, even though she hates Aidou, she'd rather work with him in comparison to Kaname. At least with Aidou, she'd be able to enjoy fun battles of wit when they bicker. It just wasn't the same when you did it with someone so...impassive.
"I'm sure the teacher won't appreciate that."
He lifted up from his seat in one smooth motion, grabbing the text book left on his desk, along with the book he had been reading earlier. There was no passing glance towards the girl to see if such a thing was acceptable - he knew it probably wasn't, in her eyes, but her opinion didn't matter in lieu of this project's grade.
So he passed around the aisles, taking those few short steps upwards to come to his partner himself. Now he glanced at her, giving her that calm smile again, before setting his books on the area beside her own, and settling down in the sit just to her right.
She stared at him as he rose, she stared at him as he got his stuff, she stared at him as he made his way to her, and she stared at him as he sat down right beside her.
And then she scooted away.
How dare he do that without even seeing if it was okay first. Because, as it were, it was most certainly not okay.
Fucking jerk.
Kaname sighed, her obvious dislike of him making itself known once again. It was a curious thing, but something he wasn't quite ready to pry into. The answers may be just as puzzling as the questions.
"Alright class," the teacher began. "Your assignment is to pick one of the subjects on the list, then write a report about it. The report must be five pages long, and you need a visual to accompany it, because you will be giving a seven minute speech as well." The entire class groaned at this new development, and Kaname himself wasn't looking forward to spending the amount of time it would take to complete this project with someone who loathed him.
"You have two weeks," the old man finished, then sat back down and waved as if expecting the class to start on it now. The sounds of quiet banter filled the room as each group determined just what they would be doing.
The pureblood turned towards his partner, head tilted to the side in question as he waited for her opinion on the matter.
Date: August 19th
Location: History Class at the Academy
Rating/Warnings: PG
Summary: Kiri and Kaname are paired up to do a project together. Insert hell here. <3
Nine o'clock. It wasn't late, necessarily, but the odd schedule made everything feel a little off. Kaname sighed, leaning against his arm as he flipped through the pages of the book he was currently reading. It didn't hold his interest - his thoughts had drifted elsewhere -, but it was amusing at how his inattention agitated the history teacher.
Ah, history. The Kuran didn't really need to take such a subject - personal experience was far better than what could be gleaned from textbooks -, but still... It was interesting to see what the humans thought of their history, to test just how accurate they were.
The teacher shot some meaningless question in his direction - some nonsense about the late Byzantine Empire's fall -, in the hopes of catching the pureblood off guard.
"Twelve-oh-four," he answered, then flipped another page. The teacher, begrudgingly, moved on.
There weren't many Night Class students in this class - history wasn't a subject most would take again, without proper motivation -, but it was almost... refreshing, to distance himself from the responsibilities which surrounded him when he was with his peers.
He leaned more heavily on his hand, then turned the page, the sound of paper scraping against paper a silent backdrop to the teacher's droning voice.
Kiri had her pencil in her mouth, letting it bob up and down while she manipulated the eraser end with her tongue. Although it looked as if she was staring off into space, she was actually paying close attention. She loved history more than any other subject, and while the teacher kept getting distracted by Kuran Kaname, he actually had pretty interesting lectures.
However, the fact that the supposedly great Kaname was disrespecting the teacher--not in a direct way, of course--kind of pissed her off. He could at least be kind and try to humor the teacher by pretending he was listening, but he wouldn't even do that.
If he wasn't going to take much interest in the course, why even take it in the first place? It's not like upperclassmen have it as a required subject. Kiri was sure she'd enjoy the class much more if the room didn't wreak of...him.
Although, she was a few rows behind him--a safe distance away, and as long as he kept away from her, she'd be fine.
She hoped.
He felt eyes on him.
Kaname paused mid-page turn, his middle finger and thumb brushing across the page lightly, before letting it drop downwards to settle with the other sheets of paper.
He was used to feeling eyes on him, actually. The entire Night Class was. Humans... had a tendency to stare, no arrogance intended in that statement. It was really just a clever design of their character, of their species. Vampires were made to be enticing - to draw you in by scent and sight, then take advantage of your compliance when the time was right...
Shaking thoughts of blood and drink away, the brunette lifted his gaze to glance at what the teacher was writing on the blackboard, then looked back down.
Still, the feeling remained, and when Kaname really tried to focus on it, he found that there was something different in this particular gaze.
Something angry.
He glanced up again, waited a few seconds, then looked over his shoulder to try and find the source of this new... oddity.
Oh shit.
He had caught her staring. And here she was hoping to burn a hole through the back of his head and be done with it. She narrowed her eyes at him, she wasn't going to turn around and pretend she hadn't been looking--she had, there was no way of denying that.
She glanced up to make sure the teacher wasn't looking, and when she was sure it was safe, she looked back at Kaname and smiled before flipping him off.
...This was new.
Kaname had been preparing his best civil smile, the hint of it playing on the edge of his lips, when the girl staring at him did something wholly unexpected.
He'd never been given the bird before, and so could only blink when he realized it was directed towards him, and not some other person around him. He pondered over what he could have possibly done to have garnered such a reaction - were humans so attached to their privacy that simply looking back at them when one was staring was considered taboo?
He didn't know, but the smile froze midway on his face, either way, and instead fell to a more confused look. Not angry - rarely angry, actually, unless someone threatened what he held dear to him -, only... intrigued.
Humans were so interesting.
...Okay. She had flipped him off, and yet he was still looking at her. You would think that someone giving you the bird would be a hint at leave me alone.
She boredly switched from her middle finger to her index finger and swirled it around, implying that Kaname should take a hint and turn around. She didn't want to look at his face more than she had to.
Maybe the pretty boy was shocked that someone actually didn't like him.
"Kuran Kaname!" His attention had been elsewhere for too long, and now the teacher was righteously angry. Tilting his head slightly in response to the girl's obvious dismissal, the Night Class student turned back around to face the board.
His mood was calm, passive, but it didn't seem to help improve the professor's own temper. The scraggly old man - human, who's demeanor seemed to always hint at a touch of arrogance, and who's face looked as old and dusty as the subject he taught - slit his eyes, then cracked the piece of chalk he had been holding on his wooden desk. It broke into two pieces, and this only seemed to fuel his rage.
Of course, Kaname hadn't been solely responsible for this little outburst. The entire classes - save for a select few - had been acting just as bored. Some students in the back had even fallen asleep! The brunette himself was only occupying his mind with more important things. He could still focus on what the teacher was saying - could recite his lecture right back to him, if he tried -, only... It was in his nature to appear nonchalant.
A bad habit, one might say.
He didn't respond to the old man's sharp rebuke, but instead leaned forward on his elbows. The teacher ignored this, and ripped open one of the drawers in his desk, sifting through a few files before pulling out an exceptionally large one.
"Alright class," he said, glare snapping towards the people who had fallen asleep, his silent authority enough to wake them up. "Since everyone has been paying such good attention, I've got a little surprise for you."
Oh, his sarcasm knew no bounds.
Another moment, and he had the file opened to a certain set of papers, and was meticulously pulling each one out, settling it in order in front of him. He beckoned a student from the front towards his desk, then sent her off to make copies of whatever he had pulled out.
"We're doing a group project," he stated, looking back towards the class. "And it will count for forty percent of your grade."
'Forty percent? Seriously?'
She knew that a lot of people were being disrespectful to him--sleeping in class, chatting, passing notes...
A couple in the back corner was even making out.
But to spring a project on them that was worth so much of their grade, while knowing that the class hadn't been paying any attention to him...
It was cruel.
Kiri had nothing to worry about, though. She had been listening the entire time, she even had taken thorough notes on everything the teacher had said. He really was a good teacher--he just wasn't respected, and the fact that no one but her seemed to listen to his lecture almost made her sad.
'I think I'm going to like this class.' While, usually, a teacher that seemed to be revengeful and mean was something Kiri would detest...this teacher seemed to share her hatred for Kuran Kaname. That would put anyone on her Love-List.
Forty percent.
It seemed unnecessarily cruel, but didn't affect Kaname in the least. He knew the material well, despite his lack of attention. The only problem that he could foresee was the fact that this would be a group project. Which meant it took time out of his already busy schedule to work with a human on something he already knew.
He inhaled deeply, then exhaled in one long, slow breath.
It would be a pain, of course, to deal with the... fawning. Usually the prefects kept the Day Class a safe enough distance away from the Night Class. But here, the goal was to integrate, so such a thing as personal space had become... nearly nonexistent.
The girl who had copied off those papers came back, her face a bit downcast - no doubt she had taken a glimpse at the assignment. The teacher happily split the stack in two, then beckoned another student forth and had them pass out the packet.
"I'll be assigning your groups," the man began as he rifled through another paper on his desk, ignoring the groans of protest that accompanied this declaration. "So please listen carefully as a call your name..."
Assigned groups? She really didn't like the sound of that. Kiri only got along with a select group of people.
When people don't really know her, she comes off as a straight-forward in-your-face bitch. But people who actually take the time to talk to her and get to know her tend to, eventually, fall under her unusual charms.
They even come to realize that her blunt honesty is the best thing about her.
Knowing this, being able to select her partner is usually the best situation for her--it gives her the chance to call upon the few that really know her and shy away from those she knows she'd fail to communicate with.
But, she guessed she'd survive, as long as her partner wasn't a girl. Or worse...
Kuran Kaname.
He smiled politely at the girl who handed him his paper. She blushed, then looked away quickly - a natural reaction that he had grown used to -, so he looked away as well.
It was a list.
Kaname tilted his head to the side, pondering over this for a moment, before letting his gaze travel back to the front of the classroom. It was already fairly obvious what they would be doing. The paper was simply a list of subjects, and one could assume that this meant you could choose your own from the many stated on the page.
"Kuran Kaname." It was the second time the teacher had called his name today, and the pureblood tilted his head in the man's direction.
He seemed like he was about to say something, then changed his mind and rifled through another set of papers in front of him.
"Hmm... no... That won't do..." the professor mumbled to himself, scratching at his balding head.
"Ah! Here." He glanced up, meeting the Night Class student with a piercing grey-eyed gaze.
"Kuran-kun," the inflection on that last part did not escape the brunette's notice. "You will be paired with Tetsu-chan."
When Kiri heard her name get called in the same sentence as Kuran Kaname, she did the only thing she could do.
She gasped with shock.
And with this gasp, the pencil she had been playing with in her mouth began to slide down her throat. Her eyes widened and she started coughing.
'Shit, Shit, SHIT.'
She backed up and her chair hit the desk behind her--hard--which caused her, and her chair, to fall to the ground. The hacks got louder and she quickly maneuvered to her knee's, hoping gravity was on her side, until she felt the pencil safely slide out of her mouth and fell on the floor.
'I just almost fucking DIED.'
Shakily, she reached over to her desk and slammed her hand down, slowly lifting herself up enough so that her head was visible. She raised her hand, and in a raspy voice said, "S-sensei...I-I would l-like a new...partner..."
The entire classroom turned to watch as one of their own started dying. Kaname lifted out of his chair, his body tense, brow furrowed as he tried to make sense of what was happening. Did she just swallow her pencil?
He took a step forward, then paused when her hacking and wheezing began to die down. His eyes were blank for the most part, but a hint of concern shone through.
"Are you alright?" Kaname asked, voice low and smooth, as if acting calm would keep the rest of the classroom - and herself - calm as well.
She ignored him--blatantly, in fact. She, unfairly, was blaming him for the fact she almost choked on her pencil, even though she was the one who had been playing with it in her mouth.
She figured it was a chain of events.
She was playing with her pencil, Kaname felt her staring with hatred and looked, she flipped him off, Kaname manipulated the universe so that the teacher would say something shocking, Kiri choked, and, if Kaname got his way, would have died.
She didn't want to fall to the hands of this devil in human form. Hopefully, hopefully, the teacher would sympathize with her and let her off.
...
Hopefully.
Her brush off didn't affect him much. It was more interesting to see a spiteful human, than to avoid a fangirl.
"Tetsu-chan, are you quite alright?" The teacher sounded a bit annoyed - no doubt he thought it was a show of theatrics, considering she was fine now. This was magnified by the fact that he didn't wait for an answer.
"And why would you want to switch partners?" It sounded more like he was saying, 'And why would you defy my logic?'.
Kaname looked on, slowly settling himself back down in his seat, his eyes still trained on the girl.
She coughed again--it felt like she swallowed the tip of her pencil--and she resisted the urge to narrow her eyes at her teacher. Although he asked her if she was alright, he didn't wait for a response nor did he even sound like he cared.
"Y-yes sir, I'm fine..." She coughed once more, fixing her seat and settling herself down slowly. "I...I don't really...feel that Kaname and I will be...suitable partners."
She took her time while saying this, choosing her words carefully as she did so. Even though she's usually blunt, she respects her teachers, and wouldn't want to offend them.
And, of course, she didn't want detention.
The teacher blinked, then settled his hands in front of him, on the desk.
"And why is that?"
Kaname wasn't bothered by it, either way, but he was still curious as to her answer, and so continued to watch her carefully.
'You know what. I just almost died, who gives a fuck if I get detention.'
She sighed, leaning back in her chair and running a hand through her hair. "I hate him."
The teacher seemed unfazed, though the rest of the classroom stared in disbelief. Hate? Kuran Kaname? But... how?
"Well," the old man glanced towards Kaname, who's face remained impassive, though his eyes told a different story. "I paired you together because you two have the highest scores in the classroom. With anyone else, either one or the other would be doing all the work." His words sounded final, and as he turned back towards what he was busying himself with before, it seemed apparent that he wouldn't be changing his mind.
Kaname finally turned back around to face the front of the classroom, his gaze disinterested.
After a few more moments, the teacher looked up at his students, seemingly analyzing their every move.
"Alright now, students. Get into your groups, and then I'll explain the details of your assignment."
He had said no. Fuck.
...
But...Kiri was never one to take no for an answer.
She rose her hand again and, without waiting to be called on, said, "Sensei, I'm sorry but isn't it also unfair to group the two kids with the best grades together, while kids with poorer grades are left with each other and don't have the proper assistance they might require?"
Alright, he had had enough. Turning slightly in his seat, Kaname beat the teacher to any answer he might have given.
"Despite your unfounded dislike of me," he began, his tone completely calm, as if they were talking about the weather, and not how much this one girl loathed his very being. "It is disrespectful to contradict the teacher in such a manner."
Blunt, as ever, and uncaring that they were in a crowd.
She glared at him. His saying this only increased her dislike of him by at least twenty fold.
"You have no right to preach to me, Kuran. During class you were spacing out, looking as if you weren't even listening to the teacher. That is more disrespectful than asking for a partner change when I believe I won't be able to work well with the one I have been assigned." Her voice raised slightly, but she was holding back as best she could.
This was really annoying.
He smiled, then. It was practically a mockery, but... not quite. It's not that his smile wasn't genuine... That's just how his smiles were. There, but far away. Distant, but oddly personal.
"I was listening," he said offhandedly, his voice far from petulant. It wasn't like he was trying to prove something to her, after all. He gestured with a wave of the hand, indicating the fact that they were interrupting class at this moment - everyone else's attention was focused on their little conversation.
"Now, will you join me, or would you prefer I go to you?"
Her glare worsened. "Neither." She didn't want to work with him.
In all honesty, even though she hates Aidou, she'd rather work with him in comparison to Kaname. At least with Aidou, she'd be able to enjoy fun battles of wit when they bicker. It just wasn't the same when you did it with someone so...impassive.
"I'm sure the teacher won't appreciate that."
He lifted up from his seat in one smooth motion, grabbing the text book left on his desk, along with the book he had been reading earlier. There was no passing glance towards the girl to see if such a thing was acceptable - he knew it probably wasn't, in her eyes, but her opinion didn't matter in lieu of this project's grade.
So he passed around the aisles, taking those few short steps upwards to come to his partner himself. Now he glanced at her, giving her that calm smile again, before setting his books on the area beside her own, and settling down in the sit just to her right.
She stared at him as he rose, she stared at him as he got his stuff, she stared at him as he made his way to her, and she stared at him as he sat down right beside her.
And then she scooted away.
How dare he do that without even seeing if it was okay first. Because, as it were, it was most certainly not okay.
Fucking jerk.
Kaname sighed, her obvious dislike of him making itself known once again. It was a curious thing, but something he wasn't quite ready to pry into. The answers may be just as puzzling as the questions.
"Alright class," the teacher began. "Your assignment is to pick one of the subjects on the list, then write a report about it. The report must be five pages long, and you need a visual to accompany it, because you will be giving a seven minute speech as well." The entire class groaned at this new development, and Kaname himself wasn't looking forward to spending the amount of time it would take to complete this project with someone who loathed him.
"You have two weeks," the old man finished, then sat back down and waved as if expecting the class to start on it now. The sounds of quiet banter filled the room as each group determined just what they would be doing.
The pureblood turned towards his partner, head tilted to the side in question as he waited for her opinion on the matter.