[Multi-Part] Lessons Learned (GacktDa) - Part 1
Title: Lessons Learned
Pairing: GacktDa
Rating: PG-13
Warning: When I started, my muse was bipolar. Expect similar mood-swings from the fic. It’s not that great- at all- but I hope that you enjoy just having something to read, at least. Oh, and a bit of boy on boy action for those who endure it.
Disclaimer: I don’t own anybody whose name resembles an idol/celebrity’s O_o
Summary: Tatsuya’s having trouble in Chemistry and his ever-helpful sister decides she’s gonna help him find a tutor. Drama ensues.
A/N: Dedicated to So-chan! Seeing as she requested it and all :D (speaking of- I’m sorry it’s so random! I wasn’t expecting it to do this to me! And I’m sorry it took so bloody long! *bows on knees*)
oh, and yes I’m a myth-geek and the first thing I thought when picking a name for his sister was: “Well… he’s the dragon, so she’s a firebird, right?” And so Hinoko (fire child) was named :D
A/N 2: OH MY GOODNESS IT IS COMPLETE /shot for taking so freaking long to complete something so... yeah. will be posting this once a week, after this and part 2 are up! :D
Part 1
“Seventy percent?! Seventy?!” the sharp crack of a slap fills the genkan and Tatsuya bows his dark head, shaking. He hates this. It’s not his fault- no one understood what was on the test. Only Kato-kun did well, and it was barely an eighty! “What the hell is this?! I raised you better than this!” his mother shrieks in his face, and he flinches.
“Mom, that teacher is known for giving too-hard tests. The class average was less than forty percent!” Hinoko, the older chocolate-haired counterpart of the boy at the door, comes to his defence to the top of the stairs behind the pair in the genkan, clearly having heard the noise as far as her room.
“That doesn’t mean he has the right to do so badly!” their mother Fumiko counters, her slender frame stiff and tense, her dark eyes flashing obsidian. “If you knew you were going to do badly, you should have studied harder!”
“But I got ninety-six on the last quiz…” he murmurs meekly, his low voice a soft whisper. “I’ll do the extra test to make up for it…”
“You’d better,” Fumiko says with finality. “And I don’t want to see this much red on a paper from you again,” she brushes her long cocoa-coloured hair away from her face, annoyed.
“I understand…”
She informs them that she has a meeting later, so dinner will be early. She leaves for the kitchen. Hinoko looks to Tatsuya, who still hasn’t moved from the genkan and is still staring at his feet. “Why don’t I get one of my friends to help you with your corrections, Tatchan?” Hinoko asks softly, coming to rest a hand on his arm. “You can recover a few points if you hand in corrections, too, right?”
“Not enough…” he whispers, shaking his head slightly, barely looking up at her.
Hinoko smiles sympathetically and takes her little brother’s hand. “No, not enough, but some. And I’d help you myself, but I never took chemistry in my last year of high school. Come on- let’s get some piano practice in before dinner,” she tugs him forward.
But he just shakes his head again, his black fringe falling back over his eyes. “No, I have another test tomorrow. It’ll be easy, but I want to make sure I get it right.”
Hinoko’s face falls. “Oh… okay. Well, maybe after then. Good luck with your studying…”
He appreciates her encouragement, he really does, but right now he just wants to hide. So he thanks her and deprives himself of another night of music and holes up in his room instead, studying for his test tomorrow and trying to make sense of the one he just got back.
“Camui-kun! Camui-kun!”
Hyde turns his head and glances back, but Camui doesn’t seem to have heard. “Hey, Ueda’s calling you.”
“Hmm?” he snaps out of his thoughts and looks back where his friend is waving the slight girl over. “Oh, you’re right. Ueda-chan, how are you today?”
Hinoko stops shortly in front of them and they exchange ‘hello’s. After the pleasantries are done with, Hinoko blurts, “I know this is really sudden and I know you’re busy and all, Camui-kun…”
“We got classes to get to,” Hyde drawls offhandedly, mussing his blond hair and sighing, but Camui silences him with a pointed look and Hyde turns slightly away, looking stubbornly bored.
“Go on?” Camui looks politely interested.
“…Right…” Hinoko itches her left arm in an absent nervous gesture: they used to be pretty close, the three of them, but with classes all over campus, they haven’t spoken for months now. She speaks quickly: “Um, anyway, look: my brother usually doesn’t have any trouble with his classes, he’s one of the best students, but his chemistry teacher’s got it in her head she’s gonna pulverize everyone’s averages and he needs some help. You’re good at chemistry, right? I didn’t take it in high school so I can’t help him… but you, you can do it, right? You’ll help Tatchan?” she lifts pleading caramel eyes to meet his contact-dyed blue ones.
Hyde’s smirking at something off into space on her left, and Hinoko can only hope she knows why as Camui’s usually stoic face drops a little and his cheeks glow just a little pink. “Be Tatsuya-kun’s tutor? I…suppose?” his expression straightens up and freezes once again, returning to his business one. “I’m not too busy; it shouldn’t be difficult to find the time to stop by. When do you want me to come over?”
Hinoko smiles in relief and, though she tries to hide it, smug satisfaction. “He’ll be home tonight and tomorrow after four, if you can make it?”
Camui nods, his cheeks now fading too to their usual pallor beneath the short brown-black strands. “I’m sure this evening will be fine.”
Hinoko beams, her hands up palm-to-palm in thanks. “Thank you so much! I really appreciate it! But you guys have class, right? I won’t keep you any longer. See you tonight, Camui-kun. See you around, Hyde-kun,” she nods his way.
He actually nods back this time, a small smirk still tugging at his lips. Hyde smacks Camui’s arm, telling him they’ll be late.
As soon as they’re gone, Hinoko claps her hands happily and runs off to her next lecture, already texting Tatsuya not to be late coming home tonight.
“Camui-kun! Thanks so much again for coming over!” Hinoko opens the door wide and ushers her old classmate and friend in.
He looks around with more than a little awe. “Your house is so nice… I haven’t visited since you moved, have I?” he says quietly, a little afraid of the light cream walls everywhere and the big windows in the living room off to their left.
“No, and I’m sorry it’s so bright,” Hinoko laughs, picking up on his apprehension. “I can draw the blinds if it makes you more comfortable.”
“Ah…eh? Oh, no,” he waves a hand, “you don’t have to worry about me- I’m sure it’d be a pain…”
“Look, you’re all flustered already! It’s no big deal. I don’t know how you and Tatsuya are going to work if you’re both so awkward.”
His senpai-look kicks in immediately. “I’m not awkward! And you should be more respectful to your elders!” he scolds.
Hinoko hides a giggle behind her hand. “You’re only a few months older than me!” she argues. She loves pestering Camui and God knows she doesn’t get the chance often. Better yet is the fact that she doesn’t only get to tease Camui, seeing as…
A soft thump and Hinoko turns to see her little brother at the foot of the stairs with an adorably horrified expression, his boxing gym bag at his feet. “C-Camui-senpai?” he all but squeaks.
Camui blinks and looks past Hinoko. “Tatsuya-kun? You look different...” if he remembers correctly, the last time Camui saw him, the younger boy looked… not a whole lot unlike himself at the time, actually. But now the seventeen-year-old has long black hair that curls just so over his neck, framing his jaw and making his features look soft and delicate.
Tatsuya looks up at him with a vulnerable look in his dark amber eyes. “Is that… bad?”
“No, no! It suits you,” Camui rushes to insist, and Hinoko snickers at the pair. She decides it’s time to bring them back to the present, just for now.
“I tried helping him with his test corrections, Camui-kun,” she says, “but I’m not good with chemistry so I didn’t do very well…”
Camui’s blue-tinted eyes turn to Hinoko again, flashing a challenge. “Oh? Well, I’ll make sure he gets one hundred on the next test, and nothing less. He’ll be so knowledgeable his teacher won’t be able to throw a damn thing at him and throw him off. Right, Tatsuya-kun?”
“Uhm… s-sure, Camui-senpai…” Tatsuya is still flustered, standing awkwardly at the foot of the steps, and a little disbelieving.
A small smile graces Camui’s lips and he pats Tatsuya’s shoulder. “Come on then, let’s get started. Have you got all your things?”
Tatsuya nods and affirms in a small voice, “Yes,” and then shows Camui to his room, leaving Hinoko downstairs.
Hinoko peeks in a little later to find the lights turned down and the pair absorbed in study, as to be expected. However, she also notes that the blush that originally wouldn’t leave Tatsuya’s cheeks is gone, and he’s sitting more comfortably- and significantly closer to Camui. “Tatsuya, Camui-kun, I have tea and snacks for you,” she chimes, and the two look up.
“Thank you, Ueda-chan,” Camui gracefully takes the cups and sets one down in front of Tatsuya. “Let’s take a break, Tatsuya-kun.”
Tatsuya thanks him for the cup and Hinoko places some cashew crackers between them. “Well, I’d love to stay and chat, but I have my own homework to get to. Camui-kun, I leave my little brother in your capable hands,” Hinoko smirks Tatsuya’s way and Camui turns just in time to see Tatsuya’s cheeks go a little pink. Hinoko blow him a kiss and leaves, closing the door behind her.
“I’m sorry for my obnoxious sister, Camui-senpai,” Tatsuya says quietly- it’s the only way he can keep his voice relatively normal-seeming just now.
Camui just smirks. “Didn’t I tell you to call me Gackt? But don’t worry so much about her. I came here to help you, not your sister.”
Gackt’s sincere tone isn’t helping Tatsuya’s admirable efforts to keep casual any at all. The pink tinting his cheeks goes a little darker yet and he clears his throat, glancing away and surreptitiously taking a calming breath.
Gackt notices, however, and sips his tea before asking lightly, “Do I make you uncomfortable?”
If he said a flat out ‘no,’ Tatsuya’d be lying. “Not…really,” he says at last, his head kind of tilting to one side. He shifts his chair back a bit, realizing -with just a bit of embarrassment- how close he’d been to his senpai, but he doesn’t get far before Gackt stops him with a light hand on his arm. “Senpai?”
“It’s just ‘Gackt,’ remember? You really are a slow learner, aren’t you?” he means for his voice to be lightly teasing, but Tatsuya winces nonetheless.
“You wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t, would you?” Tatsuya mutters bitterly, brushing Gackt’s hand from his arm, and for the first time that day Gackt is without words. When he tries to say something, Tatsuya suddenly reaches across Gackt to tidy up his papers. “That’s enough for today, don’t you think? I’ve wasted enough of your time already,” he says, moving to close his book, but Gackt holds the book firmly open, a small frown on his face.
“There’s no use ending it here; you’ll only be wasting my time if you forget all of this because we haven’t covered The Box for pHs and concentrations too,” he says firmly. He gently but firmly pushes Tatsuya back down onto his chair and grabs the notes sheet and sketches out The Box. “Drink your tea and grab your calculator. Let’s do some examples,” he says, slowly but surely coaxing Tatsuya back out of his shell until finally the boy is back to his focused and clumsy self.
“And this is a strong acid, right? So it goes one hundred percent, and then it’s… but…hang on, why’s SO4-2 in the answer?” Tatsuya looks up from the page, confused. “I get why the OH- is there, I can get it from the H3O+ but… why’re you looking at me like that?”
Gackt points to the paper. “See those ion charges?”
“Yeah?”
“What does that mean?”
Tatsuya’s hardly impressed with the older guy’s tone. “That it’s an ion?”
“What else does it mean?”
“I don’t know, that it’s in water?”
“Right! So we have a strong acid dissociating in water. What’s weird about this acid?” Gackt points at the dissociation’s products.
Tatsuya stares for a moment. “HSO4- is a weak acid?”
“Right! So…?” Gackt makes a motion with his hand, egging the boy on.
“So…” Tatsuya stares down at the paper. “…Oh. That’s where the SO4-2 comes from…”
“That’s right,” Gackt looks on with satisfaction as the boy sketches out another equilibrium, Tatsuya’s eyes intensely focused and his tongue sticking out a little between his teeth.
“Done! I get it! Now we’re finished for today, right?” Gackt can’t help but find Tatsuya’s triumphant grin cute. He ruffles the kid’s hair.
“That’s right, we’re done. And it’s near about time I headed back besides.”
Tatsuya’s lips pucker into a pout. “Right…”
Gackt chuckles. “Don’t go looking so sad. We only got through half the unit. How does Thursday sound for the second half?”
“Thursday… yeah, Thursday works! Um… thank you, for all your help, Gackt-senpai…” the shy look is back and Tatsuya can’t seem to look Gackt in the eyes anymore.
“My pleasure. It was most enjoyable, and I can assure you it wasn’t because of the chemistry,” Gackt pats Tatsuya’s blushing head with a smirk. He stands and grabs his jacket off his chair, moves to the door. “Aren’t you going to see me out?”
Tatsuya abruptly stands, almost bashing a knee on his desk. He collects himself and shows Gackt downstairs and sees him off, thanking him again for the help and assuring him he won’t forget about Thursday. He tries really hard not to blush deeper when Gackt calls him just ‘Tatsuya,’ and after Gackt is gone, he stands very still at the door, pausing before locking it. He hears his sister pad down the stairs and come to a stop behind him. He waits another moment before checking through the door’s peep-hole to see that Gackt’s really left before turning to his sister, in all her smugly smirking glory. “How could you do that to me?!” he hisses.
Hinoko just laughs, waving a careless hand. “You’re only complaining now because I took you a bit by surprise, but you’re not really mad,” she says slyly. “You know I have only your best interests in mind. I’ll admit though, I expected you to get a lot less chemistry done,” she pouts.
Tatsuya tries not to beat his head against the door. “The whole thing was so embarrassing! Thank God we did get work done or I would have died! Don’t do that to people!”
“You should be thankful I’m helping you out so much, really. I don’t know why you’re so worked up about this.”
“Of course I’m worked up about-”
The distinct sound of keys and then the door unlocking has Tatsuya jumping away from the door and next to his sister. Moments later, their father squeezes in, huddled a bit against the cold of the rainy day. He glances up and starts backward when he sees his children standing right in front of the genkan. “Um… Hello. I’m home.”
“Welcome home,” the siblings chorus reflexively.
“Special occasion?” Ryuichi asks, shrugging off his coat and toeing off his shoes.
“Not really,” Tatsuya says.
“Yes,” Hinoko replies.
“Well, which is it?” Ryuichi looks from his son to his daughter and back. “You’re not helping yourselves not look suspicious.”
“It’s nothing, Dad, I just had my first session with my chemistry tutor,” Tatsuya says casually. “How was work?”
“Work was fine, fine,” he says distractedly. “But you found a tutor already? Who is it? It went well, I assume? I heard about your test from your mother.”
Tatsuya winces. “Um... yeah, it went well. He’s one of Nee-chan’s friends. He helped me a lot,” he says.
“That’s good, that’s good. Oh right, your mother’s working late again; dinner’s up to us. Hi-chan, will you take care of that?”
“Sure, Dad. Any cravings? Dark meat? Pale meat?” she throws her brother a sidelong glance and he glares back.
Their father misses the exchange, or at least doesn’t comment. “Whatever you like, dear.”
“Okay! Fish it is. Dinner will be ready for seven! Tatchan, why don’t you go over your notes and figure out what you want Camui-kun to go over with you later? You’re meeting again, right?”
“Camui-kun?” Ryuichi seems surprised. “That’s who’s tutoring you?”
Tatsuya nods. “That’s right.”
Ryuichi seems a little concerned by this but doesn’t comment. “Camui-kun, huh… well, you said he’s always in the top ten in your year, right Hi-chan? You’re lucky to have someone so capable, Tatsuya.”
“I’m very grateful for Gackt-senpai’s help. We got a lot done today.”
Ryuichi makes a non-committal sound. He clears his throat. “Well, I’ll be in my office. I shouldn’t be long; just a few bills. I’ll be done in time for supper.”
Hinoko has a small frown on her face, but she changes it to a smile. “Okay. Take care.”
Tatsuya looks from his sister to his dad with concern before moving aside to let his father pass. “I’ll help you with dinner,” he says to his sister, but she just smiles at him and musses his hair.
“Don’t worry about it. You’ve got some review to catch up on, right?”
He nods and wanders back upstairs, moving the folding chair he’d used back into the closet and shuffling his papers around. When he sits in his desk chair again, he realizes with some surprise -and excitement- that it smells of Platinum Egoiste.
Dinner proves relatively silent, but that’s nothing new, really. There is nothing but the sound of clinking bowls and chopsticks for a while, until Ryuichi clears his throat to speak up. Both children are immediately at attention: that is not normal. Ryuichi seems a little awkward under his children’s twin caramel stares, but only for a moment. Then he announces, ‘Well, your mother’s trip to Seoul is going to last the week, it seems. There was an error in the contract and it needs to be corrected by the lawyers there…” he pauses, then continues on an entirely different note, “Tatsuya… I don’t want you to get too close to Camui-kun, even if he is helping you with your studies at the moment, alright?”
Tatsuya frowns noticeably but ducks his head to mask it a little. He pecks at his rice with his chopsticks. “Why is that?”
Hinoko just observes her father intensely, mute.
“I just don’t think he’s a good influence on you is all,” Ryuichi says. “Hi-chan, is there something wrong?”
She raises an eyebrow and sets down her chopsticks. “Not especially,” she says lightly, picking up her teacup and sipping the lightly perfumed liquid gracefully. “Why do you think Camui-un is such a bad influence, all of a sudden? You never had any problems with him when we were close. You quite liked him, in fact. Said he was a good kid. Mature. Respectful. Bright.”
“Yes, well, that was before,” Ryuichi insists. “He… well, people change.”
“Do they?” Hinoko murmurs rhetorically, too quiet for her father to hear.
Ryuichi continues, “I just don’t want him to have an influence on our Tatsuya.”
Tatsuya still hasn’t lifted his head. “What kind of influence is that, Father?”
Ryuichi eyes his son levelly, but not unkindly. “You know,” he gestures vaguely. “He’s older than you, Tatsuya. And a university student, no less. The boys in university aren’t exactly known for their responsible behaviour, these days.”
Hinoko makes an unimpressed sound, flicks her long brown hair over her shoulder. Tatsuya looks up to meet his father’s gaze for the first time and says softly, “I will get as friendly or as unfriendly with Gackt-senpai as we become on our own, Father. But I think that Gackt-senpai is a friend worth making, and he’s very kind and smart, even if he’s a little strange sometimes.”
Ryuichi makes a disapproving sound but drops the subject, unable to hold his son’s gaze. Tatsuya finishes his dinner soon after and thanks his sister for the meal, goes and cleans his dishes. He proceeds silently to his room to fit in some more homework before bed.
|Part 2|