Chapter Text
You were currently staring holes into the piece of paper that lay in front of you. It had a concerning amount of red markings on it, and the letter “F” was written ridiculously big at the very top, starting right back at you. You had completely and utterly messed this algebra exam up and it sadly wasn’t the first failed test either.
Your high school math teacher’s statement, something along the lines of “You will definitely need this later on”, had turned out to be true. Unfortunately, you'd always been an absolute failure when it came to the subject. You'd barely passed your classes in high school, even though you'd spent hours, even entire nights, studying (and crying), but even then your grades had never improved, so you had simply given up. You’d never be able to understand any of it. But if you were being honest, you’d stopped caring at some point.
By the time you’d graduated, math had turned into your biggest enemy and your worst nightmare. You weren't stupid though, your talents had just always been elsewhere, and that's why you'd specifically chosen a major that you thought didn't require math. But oh boy were you in for an unpleasant surprise there. For whatever reason, you needed to take an algebra class this semester. It was mandatory, so there was absolutely no way around it. And you instantly knew you were fucked.
You didn’t really have a choice though, because if you wanted to get your degree, you would have to pass this course. And since self-studying (or throwing your book across the room and crying like you were back in high school again) wasn’t exactly a successful method, you knew that asking for a tutor was the last option. You opened your laptop and started writing an e-mail to your professor, asking him for help, trying your best not to sound too desperate.
Dear Mr. Hatake,
as you may have noticed already, I'm really struggling to pass this course. I haven't done well on the last exam but I still want to get a passing grade at the end of the semester. I would like to ask if you know any math tutors who would be willing to help me. Thank you in advance.
Kind regards.
It didn’t take long for him to respond with a phone number and a name that you’d never heard before. There was someone named Itachi, an engineering student, who was willing to give math tutoring lessons for free. You wondered who in their right mind would do something like this for free but figured that people who were good at math had always given off a special kind of vibe.
It wasn't anything unusual to ask for tutoring lessons but for some reason, you found yourself greatly overthinking what you were about to say in your message. Just a casual "Hey" at first? No. "Hi"? No, that's too casual. But "hello" sounds too formal. Ugh. After deleting the sentence for the 15th time, you finally wrote something decent and sent it immediately, not giving yourself any more time to overanalyze every detail.
— —
Your new math tutor had agreed to give you lessons and had given you his address. He had initially suggested meeting at the library, but the private rooms there were pretty much always booked in advance, and meeting at a café would have been way too distracting. Though it did feel weird to go to a stranger's house for the first time, and you could already tell that you were getting increasingly nervous with every step you were taking.
It was about 5 minutes before your arranged meeting time and you were currently climbing the stairs to his apartment. You had no idea what to expect since all you knew was his name and his major and that didn't give away much. You were just hoping that he wasn't some kind of creep but you had already informed a friend of your whereabouts, just in case.
When you finally reached his door, you waited in front of it for a few seconds in a feeble attempt to calm yourself down before ringing the doorbell. What could possibly go wrong? Sure, it’ll be awkward at first, but once you get past that, it'll surely be fine. Right? You took a deep breath before you mustered up the courage to ring.
The door opened not long after and the person you saw in front of you momentarily stopped your heart from beating. Oh my god. The stranger was fairly tall with a thin figure, wearing only a loose navy blue shirt and a pair of black sweatpants with white slippers. Though what stood out the most was the sheer beauty that was his face. He looked like someone had painted his features on, a perfectly shaped jawline and sharp, deep eyes that radiated an enticing intensity.
“Come in.", he said before casually turning around, seemingly unbothered by your astonishment.
After recovering from the initial shock of this man’s criminal attractiveness, you took off your shoes and entered the apartment. Maybe that’s his brother? This can’t possibly be the math tutor. You reached what seemed to be the living room, which only consisted of a sofa, a bed, and a table. There were very few personal touches, with only a couple of photos hanging on the plain, white walls.
There was no one else in the room and when he sat down on a pillow on the floor, gesturing for you to sit across from him, you realized that this man actually was your math tutor. I am absolutely fucked. You considered making a run for it and thought of an excuse to leave because there just was no way you would retain any information if this definition of sexy was your teacher. But your desperate need for help stopped you.
You put your backpack down and sat on the pillow, trying your best to hide your nervousness. There was only a small table separating the two of you and if anyone moved even a little, your legs would probably be touching. You hid your skittishly fidgeting fingers under the desk and analyzed the pattern of the wooden surface, avoiding his gaze because you were certain that there was a painfully obvious blush on your cheeks.
“Did you bring your exam?”
“Uhm… yeah.”
As if you couldn’t be any more embarrassed than you already were, you would now have to show your disgrace of a math test to this sexy, intelligent engineering student. You reluctantly opened your bag, pulling out a folder that contained the shameful document and Itachi wordlessly took it from you. You looked up at him for the first time to see his scrutinizing eyes scanning the paper, though his indifferent expression gave nothing away.
You’d never looked at anyone’s features this carefully but he was so handsome that you just couldn’t stop yourself. Black strands of hair were loosely hanging from the sides of his face, creating a beautiful contrast to his pale skin. He had long eyelashes that complimented his face and pronounced tear-troughs that ran along the sides of his nose.
Itachi put the exam down again and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper. When he started writing something on it, you noticed that his nails were painted a deep purple color which was unusual for a man but god did it look good on him. His delicate, long fingers held the pen steadily while it danced along the paper and for some reason, you felt an overwhelming desire to feel those fingers on your skin instead. You’d never gotten turned on by the mere sight of fingers, but this was something else.
When he was done, he turned the paper around so it was in front of you and handed you the pen. “I want you to try solving this exercise.”, he said, his deep voice resounding in your head.
“Okay.”, you answered, tapping every cell in your brain for information. You can do this. Just concentrate. Stop thinking about his damn fingers. He had written down a linear function with simple instructions on what to do. The first steps were fairly easy because they were always the same. You were relieved that you could at least write something down that you knew was correct.
“Is it fine if I sit next to you? Then I can see what you’re writing.”
Oh god. If he sat even closer than he already was, your brain would most definitely short circuit and you could forget about passing this damn class. But what could you even use as an excuse for him not to? Fuck.
“Sure.”
He shuffled over to your side, taking his pillow with him, and positioned himself right next to you. His knee rested right next to your thigh, lightly touching it and sending a violent jolt of arousal through your entire body. Calm down. Calm down. His closeness made it almost impossible to keep working on the exercise and the heat that radiated from his body made you ache for more. You could barely hold it together, which was extremely embarrassing considering that he was hardly touching you, but you managed to keep writing. Though you had no idea what you were doing.
“The first few steps are correct, but afterward you made some mistakes. I think you struggle with calculating the coordinates. So you have to… his knee, his knee, his fucking knee.
“Are you listening?”, your reverie was interrupted when Itachi raised his voice just a little so you would hear him. You looked up at him when his eyes pierced into you harshly and you prayed to God he would buy your excuse.
“I’m sorry, I’m a little tired today. Could you please repeat that?”
“It’s fine. I asked if you could try doing this exercise again with the tips I just gave you.”
You had been way too distracted by his closeness, so you’d hardly retained anything of what he had said. It would have been too embarrassing to ask the raven to repeat pretty much everything he’d told you, so you decided to just try harder this time. He had thankfully moved to the side a little so he wasn’t touching you anymore, and you tried the exercise again.
After you’d worked through the exam questions and you managed to partially push your raging desire for this man aside after realizing that you would actually fail your next test if you didn’t listen to him, Itachi decided that you were done for the day. You were thankful that it was over considering the demons you’d been fighting ever since you’d entered his apartment. You would definitely need a cold shower after this.