Haste
Echizen, Kikumaru. G. Gen.
Every couple of weeks, Echizen is attacked by the pre-exams panic squad.
2005 | 1020 words
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Every couple of weeks, Echizen is attacked by the pre-exams panic squad, consisting of his classmates, kids from other classrooms, kids from upper classes, and sometimes people who don’t actually attend Seigaku but happen to be hanging around.
The random people who never speak to him until a day or two before English tests, he can get rid of by saying no once and letting them to talk to the walls until they give up and add to his reputation of mean and cold. But from some people he just can’t seem to find a way to escape, and so, every couple of weeks Echizen finds himself leading a couple study groups. First with Horio, Kachiro and the Ryuzaki girl because, even if they’re annoying, they’re annoying all the time and not only on exams week; then, later, with Momoshiro and Arai, because Momo-senpai he kind of likes, and Arai-senpai, well… at least he has tennis going on for him, which is more than a lot of the other senpai who try to convince him it’s his duty to help them out when, really, it should be the other way around; and then, much later, with Kikumaru-senpai, because that is one pushy senpai you just don’t say no to.
The difference between helping Horio, Kachiro, Ryuzaki, Momoshiro and Arai with their sorry excuse for English, and hopelessly trying to make Kikumaru pay attention to anything he says is that, while the first ones are usually desperate enough about their sinking grades to ask him (out of all people) for help, the latter can always count on Fuji to copy the test’s answers on an eraser and causually drop it by Kikumaru’s desk on his way out of the classroom. And yet, even though his English grades are miraculously among the best ones in class 3-6, and he never bothers to listen to Echizen’s explanations about, say, the difference between their, they’re and there, Kikumaru still goes after him every couple of weeks with a panicky face and loud, shrieking pleads of “Ochibi heeeeeeelp meeeee!!!”, to which Echizen can only blink and nod while trying not to suffocate in his senpai’s bear hugs.
It makes him wonder - and not many things in this world make one Echizen Ryoma stop and wonder. Having his butt delivered back on a silver plate by Tezuka once a many moons ago was something that had made him wonder, in example, but winning over St. Rudolph and their creepy manager, or Hyotei and their cheap tricking captain didn’t; it was natural, it came and happened and there’s nothing to question about it. But this, studying with Kikumaru-senpai, much like that, losing to his captain, is not natural, something about it feels intrinsically wrong - it makes him wonder.
And because Kikumaru’s pleads make him wonder, sometimes Echizen gets fed up with all of it, stops talking and starts staring at his senpai, guessing how long it’ll take for the other to stop talking himself and notice Echizen isn’t explaining anything anymore. Sometimes it takes a good two minutes, and just when Echizen is convinced whacking his senpai over the head won’t be that disrespectful, Kikumaru stops talking too, and stares back, mouth hanging open mid-sentence, waiting for him to say or do something. Echizen will just rub his temple and think that this wouldn’t be happening if it was with Momo-senpai, because Momo-senpai listens, or when he doesn’t, he at least pretends to.
When it becomes too much for him and Echizen starts feeling that frustrated doesn’t describe how he feels over Kikumaru-senpai anymore, he’ll usually close his books and excuse himself. And if he does this while Kikumaru is busy narrating some of his fantastic new adventures or one of Fuji-senpai’s new evil deeds, his absence will be only be noticed by the time Echizen is reaching the outdoors of the library. But when it is finally noticed, it’ll earn him a much taller and heavier senpai launching at his back with cries of “Ochibi where are you gooooooing?”, and soon he’ll find himself walking back home with Kikumaru in tow, pulling him by the arm into some burger parlour or candy store, offering to treat him to some food in thanks for taking time to help, even though he’s pretty sure senpai didn’t learn a single thing from all the time he spent talking. Echizen will sigh and look exasperated, but he’ll take the offer because free food is free food after all, and he’s also pretty sure he’s never been so well treated and fed by his upperclassmen in New York, even though back there he never helped them with English lessons or winning championships.
“Nya, ochibi,” Kikumaru senpai will say, still clinging to his shoulders and practically climbing onto his back, “you’ll miss us when you’re gone.”
Echizen will frown and give senpai a weird look and think that Kikumaru-senpai is being silly because he doesn’t want Echizen to say no when he asks for another round of English studying in another couple of weeks - but before he says anything, this is about time Momo-senpai joins them in the parlour for a burger or twelve and a last minute panic attack over the tests the next day. So all Echizen will remember to do is shrug, point at the burger he wants and mutter a “mada mada dane” that rolls out weird and American-accentish, which he knows it’s what he’ll sound like for at least another day before he regains that little inbetween pause to think and speak in Japanese again. At least before the next round of exams come in a couple of weeks, bringing back the attack of both the panic squad and (inevitable, unavoidable, full of bear hugs and cryptic messages) Kikumaru-senpai all over again.
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