"Honestly, Sei-chan, I will never understand this passion of yours for 'normal' things. You could pay for the most prestigious chef in the prefecture to make your meals and instead we're stuck with the cheap stuff from the cafeteria. You have no sense of taste whatsoever."

Seijuurou didn't reply, simply picking up his food tray from the bar while ignoring the dirty looks the cook was sending in their direction. Reo truly knew nothing of tact. Out of all his teammates –both from Teikou and Rakuzan- Reo was the only one that ended in the same college as him, which had led to them spending a lot of time together, even if they didn't share any classes. Not that he would complain, he quite enjoyed Reo's company, but his lack of discretion had caused them trouble on more than one occasion. He honestly hoped the cook wouldn't poison their food next time.

As was the norm for lunch time, the cafeteria was crowded way beyond its capacity and the noise of loud chatter and laughter echoed in the walls. Seijuurou, never a fan of crowds and noisy places, started towards the glass doors that led to the much quieter terrace.

Before he could take three steps, something –or rather, someone- crashed into him and fell backwards with a painful thud, almost making him lose his balance. He was able to keep himself standing by sheer willpower, but he involuntarily loosened his grip on his food tray, making it fall from his grasp and atop the stranger's head.

"Ooww, ouch, ouch." The man on the ground whined, rubbing his tailbone. "Ouch, sorry, I wasn't paying attention, man that HURTS." He had short brown hair, now splattered with Seijuurou's lost meal, but his face was obscured by his short bangs. "Uhm, I-I'll pay for your food, I'm really sorry-oooowww."

Seijuurou bowed and extended his hand towards the man. "No, I must apologize too, I should have been more aware of my surroundings." It was not often that people crashed into him. Even if the other party wasn't looking at where they were going, he was usually very much aware of everything happening around him and most of the time had no problem dodging other people with ease.

"Money won't be a problem, do not—" he was cut mid-sentence when the stranger, who had grabbed his hand to help himself back on his feet, looked up and met his ruby eyes with a sparkling chocolate pair. His breath got caught in his throat and he found it incredibly difficult to say any other word. The skin of his hand tingled.

"I, u-uhm, I…" He tried, aghast by his sudden lack of eloquence. Nope. No words were coming out. None at all.

The other's eyes widened when they met his and he scrambled back up (to Seijuurou's surprise, the man was taller than him), shaking the food remnants from his clothes nervously. "No, really, I insist, it's the least I can do." He squeaked nervously, pulling out his wallet. "It was the C Menu, right?" he added, rushedly pulling out a thousand-yen note and thrusting it on Seijuurou's palm. "I'm really, really sorry, I'm running really late. Sorry again." He blurted out before dashing off.

He wanted to say something, he wasn't really sure of what, but his throat was stubbornly tied in a tight knot, so all he could do was stare at his hand that had been holding the other's until a few seconds ago, and contemplate on the warm and fuzzy feeling the contact had left behind.

"Reo…" he managed to breathe out, although his voice didn't sound like his at all "Who was that?"

His friend seemed surprised by the question, but he replied immediately. "You don't remember, Sei-chan? Well, I guess it's normal since he wasn't a regular… he's that Chihuahua boy from Seirin, what was his name?"

"Furihata." He replied instantly "Furihata Kouki."

He remembered Furihata Kouki. They had played many games against each other in their last year –he had become a regular after Izuki Shun's graduation-, and although Furihata could never match Seijuurou's skill, he would be lying if he said he hadn't taken notice of the boy's determination and unwillingness to give up. He even remembered their first game as clear as day, how the boy had been so utterly terrified of him he had fallen face first on the floor, not three seconds after entering the court. He also remembered how, although the fear had never left his features, Furihata had kept on facing him with as much willpower and determination as he could muster. He'd always thought the boy possessed an odd sort of courage that the found admirable.

But was that man that had stolen his breath away the same Furihata Kouki? It was true that a few years had gone by, and it was also true that Furihata had never been… unkind to the eye, so to speak, but…

"I didn't know he was in this school though, and dear me, I never expected that boy to become such a hottie."

Seijuurou clenched his fingers around the one-thousand-yen note. Sometimes Reo was too unawaredly competent when it came to voicing Seijuurou's feelings –especially in words Seijuurou himself would not be caught dead using-. He swallowed the lump in his throat and finally willed his heart to its normal rate.

"Reo, am I correct in assuming you still know virtually every person in this campus?"

His friend didn't seem to be following his train of thought, but he nodded nonetheless.

"Get me Furihata Kouki's contact information."

Kouki's phone buzzed while he was studying at the library. He'd forgotten to mute it, and some other students shot him a dirty look. The screen showed an unidentified number, but he picked up nonetheless, thinking it could be someone he knew using a borrowed phone for an emergency or something of the sort. He pressed the green button and placed his phone next to his ear.

"Hello? This is Furihata."

All he could hear from the other end of the line was white noise and faint breathing. A couple of times he thought he heard something, as if someone was trying to speak but decided not to. After a full minute of eerie silence, he shut the phone away.

Seijuurou heard the line click shut and he stared at his phone, not sure if he was more shocked that someone had hung up the phone on him, or just bewildered at himself for being completely incapable of speaking once he'd heard Furihata's voice and pictured his face in his mind.

He would need a different plan for this.

A few hours after that strange call, his phone buzzed again, but this time, it was an email. His eyes widened when he read the sender's address, and, with slightly trembling fingers, proceeded to read the content.

Hello, I am Akashi Seijuurou. We crashed into each other on the cafeteria two days ago. Meet me so I can give back your change.

Seijuurou breathed heavily, his hands shaking way too erratically for comfort. He stared at the phone, going over the words in the email over and over inside his head. Had they been too formal? Too vague? Too casual? Too commanding? Maybe too awkward? Had he crossed a line by obtaining his email address without his permission? Would Furihata Kouki even care about the 246 yen he was using as an excuse? Would he want to meet him? Had he forgotten about him? His hands were shaking so much he almost dropped his phone.

The device buzzed in his fingers, and this time, he did drop it. He rushed to pick it up, not sure of why he was so excited, and hoping the phone hadn't been damaged by the fall. He could tell Reo was doing an enormous effort not to laugh, but Seijuurou did not find this situation funny in any way.

On the screen there was a short message: I'm at the library, is it OK to meet in the study area?

After staring at his phone for about ten straight minutes, typing and erasing every possible reply he could think of, he finally sent a short "I'll be there". Before his brain could start agonizing about the propriety of that reply (definitely too vague, should've at least said how long it'll be, took too long to reply), he shut the phone off, grabbed his belongings and rushed towards the promised location.

He briefly pondered about sending another message indicating he was in the opposite side of campus and would take at least ten more minutes to get there, but he realized his mental disarray was such that it would take him twice that time just to write said message and decided against it, hoping Furihata wouldn't get tired of waiting.

Kouki took another glance at the time on his phone screen. Akashi hadn't mentioned how long he would take, but given the brevity of his response, he'd imagined he wasn't too far away. Maybe this was just a mean joke and Akashi had never tried to contact him in the first place. For all he knew, the email address " " could be fake. He shook his head. Why would anyone prank him with Akashi's name? Besides, who else other than Akashi (and Mibuchi that had been with him at the time) knew about the money he'd had to pay for Akashi's spoilt meal? He hadn't really expected to get the change back, but if Akashi had offered to give it, he wasn't going to complain. 200 yen may not change his life, but he could at least buy an extra pack of Pocky to keep him awake long enough to finish tomorrow's assignment.

After glancing at his phone yet again, he noticed lightly rushed steps coming in his direction and he looked up to find Akashi and Mibuchi walking towards him. He waved at them, feeling a little nervous, and, once they noticed where he was, Mibuchi stopped walking and only Akashi continued to approach him.

"I apologize for my tardiness." Akashi said as a way of greeting.

Kouki waved his hand dismissively. "It's okay, I haven't been here long either." He smiled pleasantly as he stood from his chair, looking down to meet the Akashi's ruby eyes. Akashi was shorter than him now, he noted, even if only by a centimeter or so. You really didn't have to go through all this trouble, Akashi-kun." He added, still smiling.

To his surprise, Akashi's calm demeanor seemed to shift ever the slightest when their eyes met. He couldn't quite tell how it was different, or why, but he had no doubt that something had changed.

"I-I uhm…"

This was absolutely ridiculous. There was no reason for him to lose his voice this way whenever he faced Furihata Kouki, and yet that was exactly what was happening. He tried to remind himself of the excuse he'd used to get Furihata's attention and quickly pulled out the eight coins he'd specifically prepared for the encounter from his pocket. Scrambling to proceed in a way that would not ruin his reputation, he extended his hand with the coins and pressed it softly to Furihata's, who extended his palm in reaction. Their fingers brushed against each other briefly, making an electric shock run through Seijuurou's spine.

"246 yen. I apologize for the tardiness." He said mechanically, and he was mildly surprised that he was able to even pronounce those words when his brain was very clearly –if inexplicably- short-circuiting.

Furihata beamed as his fingers curled around the coins. "Thanks, you really shouldn't have bothered for something so meaningless." His chocolate eyes were sparkling and his cheeks were tinted a light pink.

It briefly crossed Seijuurou's mind that Furihata had not been this tall in high school. At least never tall enough that he'd have to look up to meet his sparkling eyes. He wasn't very sure of how he felt about it, if he ought to feel anything about something so trivial at all.

He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, hoping to get some words out, and being completely unsuccessful in his endeavor. He noticed how Furihata's expression morphed to one of confusion and he cocked his head lightly. With that expression he looked a lot more like the Furihata that Seijuurou remembered. Not the one that stole his breath away, just the one that seemed to effortlessly catch his eye from time to time, for reasons unknown.

And yet, even with such an expression on Furihata's face, Seijuurou couldn't quite catch his breath again.

"Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"

"A-a-ah I…"

This was hopeless. He couldn't even think of a coherent sentence and he could tell from Furihata's expression that he was making a complete fool of himself. Why had he even wanted to get in touch with Furihata in the first place?

"Alright, I'm gonna have to stop you before Sei-chan suffers a stroke."

He felt someone hook their arm on his. Reo, judging by the voice. His friend's presence seemed to clear his brain just a little, but not enough to protest or say anything.

"Don't worry, Furihata-chan, we'll be in touch." Reo said with a playful wink before dragging him out of the library.

"S-s-sure" Kouki replied as he watched the almighty Akashi Seijuurou being dragged like a punished child by his companion. He scratched the back of his head in confusion and looked down at the coins he had received, still not completely sure of what exactly had just happened.

"Why would you do that?" Seijuurou protested, finally finding his voice again. "I was having a conversation!" He knew that was categorically untrue, but he felt too embarrassed already to admit that he'd been making a very sorry spectacle of himself.

Reo quirked one eyebrow, clearly unamused by his tantrum. "Sei-chan" he began, placing both of his hands on his hips "You should be thanking me for keeping you from further embarrassing yourself. That poor boy looked terrified, and with good reason. You were blabbering incoherencies and breathing heavily for five minutes straight. Honestly, if I didn't know you, I would've thought you were a creeper" he cocked his head and frowned slightly. "Just what happened to you?"

Seijuurou sighed and plopped down to the nearest seat. Reo had brought him to his favorite coffee shop, so he was probably expecting to receive a reward for saving him from public humiliation. "I do not know myself. Something like this had never happened to me. I had never found myself in a situation in which I could not think of the right words to use. It is quite puzzling, if I must say so."

Reo pursed his lips and tilted his hips slightly. "Sei-chan, are you crushing on that Chihuahua boy?"

Seijuurou swallowed, suddenly feeling his mouth a little dry. "I would not call it a… 'crush' but… you said it yourself the other day uhm…" that oddly familiar face and its bright smile popped at the front of his mind. "He is uhm… somewhat attractive." Dashingly handsome would be a more accurate rendition of his current feelings, but he felt a little too embarrassed to admit that much.

Reo rolled his eyes and moaned melodramatically. "You truly have no sense of taste, Sei-chan."

He frowned, immediately catching the underlying message. "Excuse me?" he glared dangerously at his friend, not pleased with the insinuation.

"Don't get me wrong, that boy is quite a hottie, especially compared to how he was before but it's like… averagely so? Not to mention how he's so mild-mannered and cute, he just doesn't really suit you, Sei-chan, you'd be more—"

"Reo. It would be in your best interest to stop talking right now."

He wasn't sure of why it upset him so much to hear Reo badmouthing Furihata. Outside of matches, he didn't know the man that well; they had barely exchanged a handful of words over their three years of high school (132 to be precise, if he counted all the "Have a good game" and "Thanks for the game" that were not specifically directed at each other, but for some reason he wanted to count them).

"Gee, alright, Sei-chan, if you like him that much…"

It was an odd thing to find himself in this position. He had never felt this sort of physical attraction towards other people. He wasn't even certain that this blossoming infatuation was purely a thing of the flesh. It wasn't as if this was the first time he noticed Furihata Kouki. Back in their high school days, even when he had not been himself, that boy had stricken a strange nerve inside him, one he didn't know existed. There was a lasting impression in the back of his mind, of that boy with the average looks and the average skills and the extraordinary determination, but he'd never reflected much upon it, much less reacted accordingly. Every time his gaze had lingered on Furihata Kouki, he'd told himself it was due to the same interest he felt towards Tetsuya, a simple admiration for hard work and unrelenting dedication to the sport. Of course, he didn't keep count of the words he'd exchanged with Tetsuya like he did with Furihata, but surely that was due to the fact that he'd had plenty of conversations with him, thus counting words would have been a trivial activity.

The Furihata of that time had definitely not been unpleasant to look at, -he would even dare call him 'charming'-, but he could've said similar things about other people. Ryouta was undeniably attractive, and Shintarou had always possessed a sort of graceful beauty. Tetsuya too, was quite endearing in his own way. Which is just to say that Seijuurou had never been blind to the aesthetics of the human anatomy, but he had always been overall unaffected by them. So even if the thought of Furihata Kouki's fairness ever crossed his mind, he attributed it to an ordinary appreciation of fortunate bodily proportions. At the time, he was much too busy to ponder on something so seemingly insignificant.

Things were different now. Furihata Kouki had changed in the three years since they had last met. They had exchanged 176 words over their two encounters (if he counted the failed phone call and the messages, but not his pathetic stuttering), already more than they had during their entire high school life. And Furihata Kouki was no longer just 'charming' not even 'captivating'. He was devastatingly, breathtakingly beautiful. Thinking of him made his mouth go dry, his throat tighten and his heart beat faster than it should. The feeling was not entirely unpleasant, but it was quite alien for him and he wasn't sure of how to respond to it.

"Sei-chan, if you're going to be staring at space for three hours, at least buy me a cappuccino."

He used the time it took Reo to get his coffee to reflect upon his future actions. Because he had to take some sort of action now. He hadn't done so in the past –he hadn't felt it was necessary- but the emotions he was experiencing now were too strong to simply ignore them. The first thing to do was obviously to try and get closer to Furihata Kouki –would he dare call him the object of his affections? No, it was too soon for that-, but that would prove difficult, if not completely impossible if he couldn't even form a coherent sentence in his presence.

When his friend was finally back and happily sipping on his drink, he looked up, determined to do something about this.

"Reo, I will be requiring your assistance."

He loathe to admit that there was something he could not master in just one attempt, but if he got too preoccupied with something as petty as pride, he would never get anywhere. If his encounters with Kouki so far –and how terribly incompetent he'd been in each and every one of them- were anything to go by, he would need astounding amounts of help to overcome the obstacle that was how unsettled he became in Furihata's vicinity. He could trust that Reo was knowledgeable in the matter and would keep the teasing about his social inadequacies to a tolerable minimum.

His friend winked. "Anything for you, Sei-chan."

"You would be Furihata Kouki, I presume."

Startled, Kouki turned to look to where the voice came from. Akashi Seijuurou was standing there, his arms crossed over his chest, his face betraying no emotion.

"Y-yeah, that'd be me." It seemed an odd way of greeting. This was the third time they met in the past two weeks, and they knew each other from high school, so why was Akashi acting like this was the first time they ever saw each other? Had he entirely forgotten about his existence? Maybe he hadn't even recognized him the last two times and was just now realizing who he was. He felt a little bit stupid for overthinking this kind of thing. "How can I help you?"

"It has come to my attention that you are one of the top students in the Life Sciences Department."

He blushed, lightly. It wasn't a lie –he'd ranked fourth overall in the last midterms-, and he'd made a damn good effort to get those results (he'd pretty much cried blood over his textbooks at some point). He was proud of his achievement, especially since it was the first time he actually accomplished something like this in his life. But being quietly proud about it and having people pointing it out to his face were two completely different matters. He wasn't really sure of how to deal with all the sudden praise, whether he should just nod and say 'thank you' (but wouldn't that be too arrogant?), or maybe act all bashful and say it wasn't that big a deal (but that sounded arrogant too).

"Uhm… yeah, you could say so. Others did better than me, though."

Akashi, who was no longer looking at him, waved his hand dismissively.

"That is irrelevant. There is a favour I would like to ask of you, if you don't mind."

Kouki tilted his head in curiosity. His previous nervousness was forgotten in favor of genuine interest. What could the mighty Akashi Seijuurou want from him? Was there really anything he could offer to one that seemed to have it all?

"Eh, sure, if it's something I can do."

For a moment, it seemed like Akashi's lips curved slightly upwards.

"I would like you to tutor me."

"Hah?"

To be continued

So I decided I had enough material to start publishing since this obviously is not going to be a one-shot anymore (I have 23K words and I'm only halfway done ;-;) If you've been following me on tumblr for a while you'll note most of this I had already posted as little previews back when I was still young and full of dreams and delusions (or when I thought the whole story was gonna be 6K hahahahaha). Sides, I'm a little stuck on Misery and I had a little resurgence of inspiration for this one.

This is my Loser Akashi Magnus Opus, I hope y'all are ready for thousands upon thousands of words of Akashi being an irredeemable loser. It's gonna be fun, I promise.

I don't usually do straight up comedy (y'all who've been reading me for a while know I'm more prone to angst) so this is kind of uncharted territory for me, hope it's okay. I have a lot of fun writing Akashi's loser thought process and Reo suffering for it.

Let me know what you think so far. Can't say I'll have a regular update schedule since recently my writing process is kinda hectic, but I've gotten new impetus for this story recently, so hopefully I'll upload next chapter in two or three weeks.