[modern!au] where Tecna's the tutor.

...

Friday night pizza in hasn't exactly been in her top priorities recently. She's been too busy with working in the lab and working part-time to get enough money for the newest available smart phone that will be coming right at her next birthday.

However, she really needs this night talk with her best friend to work out some things on her mind.

"Well, come on then," comes the blackish-blue-haired girl's voice, "What's wrong? I can't remember the last time I was in your apartment."

Tecna gratefully accepts the glass of water from her place on the floor.

"There must be something wrong. It's written all over your face." Musa takes another glass for her own befor flopping down on the sofa.

Setting down her glass on the coffe table, Tecna straightens her posture and tries to think about the best way of phrasing this.

"You remember the guy I have been tutoring...", she begins just as her best friend cuts in.

"Timmy? The glassess and clumsy, looking cute guy?" Musa sings, suddenly sounding interested. Tecna, however, nods seriously.

"This either sounds good or career ending." Musa says, fixing her gaze to her best friend with a raised eyebrow.

"The problem is that I've been tutoring him in science for some weeks, and after the session yesterday, he kissed me." Tecna says in a clipped tone, like all business talk, which may seem right to someone always logical like her.

An abrupt silence follows before Musa drops her glass to the floor while giving her friend a hug. The magenta-haired girl quickly stands up to retrive a towel and throw it over the mess while the other girl nearly shrieks and says in a sing-song voice, or rather sings a real song she's just created in the past minute with her talent: "He kissed you! Oh my gosh! He really kissed you!"

"Really?" Tecna catches a rather suspicious word, "What does that mean?"

"Oops." Her friend's gleeful voice suddenly cuts off as she looks quite sheepish herself, "Did I say anything? Just forget it."

However, if her long-timed friend thinks she'd really get off her back for something important, then she'd be really wrong.

"No, You know something, and you're not telling me, and I don't like it."

Usually, she'd use her 'abnormal' intelligence, as every friend of her says, to think of all possible scenarios, cross out the unlikely ones and summarize everything up. Yet, she's pretty messed up right now with emotions that she can't explain that she doesn't trust her usual mind anymore.

Musa avoids looking at her at all cost, still stutters something along the line of uh and ah and well, before resigning to her unlucky fate.

"Okay, I'll tell you everything I know. But first you have to answer me a question." Apparently she sees the defiant look on the magenta-haired girl, as she says, "No. I agree to tell, and you agree to answer. I can't do this for nothing, especially if I'm going to admit the whole group to you."

With no way out, and knowing Musa's strong determination once she sets her mind on something, she relents, "Okay. What do you want to ask?"

"Do you like him?"

The question is blurted out so fast that Tecna deems she's probably heard wrong.

"Pardon me?"

"You really hear the question right. Do you like him, as in romatically speaking?"

Tecna's so sure she's not the kind anyone would mess up with, when she looks like the boring girl who seems always disinterested and nonchalant. As a result, there isn't many times that she's caught off guard. Certainly, this's one of the times, and Musa's one the people who knows how.

The question leaves her speechless for some minutes, not because she doens't want to answer, but because she doesn't understand herself.

"I- don't know." She's really confused, and Musa knows her friend wouldn't fake it. The shorter-haired girl is rational, thinking with her head all the times, that sometimes she doesn't know to express her feelings and is quite oblivious to other's to her.

"What do you feel around him then?" Musa decides to take another route, gently nudging her friend with other questions that she can response.

"I- like the way he talks, and the topic he chooses when we're having a break between sessions. He's so knowledgeable about technology and science that sometimes I wonder why he needs tutoring. He's clumsy, but in a cute way, as he always trips over his stool or rambles off a topic when he's embarrassed. Sometimes I hate it, since he never talks to me about other things, always technology, though I like it." She stops abruptly when looking at the other presence's face.

"You must really like him." Musa says slowly, surely and punctuatedly, her face a kind of disbelief.

"That means I like him?" Tecna asks, in the same slow way, uncertain and perplexed.

"Yes, don't you see? The way you talk about him, the look you have on your face when answering the question. It's so obvious." Musa nearly rips her hair out with frustration. Really? This couple is unbelievable, the guy can't say a word and the girl doesn't know what proper feeling is. She definitely crosses out her love life off that unbelievable couple list.

"Does your heartbeat pick up when you're around him?"

"...uhm."

"Does it?"

"Yes, but..."

"Do you want to spend more time with him?"

"As in?"

"Outside tutor sessions?"

"Yes, what..."

"Do you want to kiss him again?"

"Can I ask a question without being interrupted? And what kind of question is that?"

"No. And that's perfectly normal question. Just answer it."

Tecna'd certainly being interrogated more had it not been for the sudden sound of the bell ringing.

"I'd go-"

"No. Just stay there, think about the question. I'd go get it. Probably the pizza delivery guy."

So she's left alone in her living room, staring into the water glass with no intention of drinking. The voice in the hallway is hushed, but she's not interested in the conversation.

Deep in thought, she can only catch her friend taking her bag off the sofa with only a goodbye and good-luck which she has no idea about: "Hey, I suddenly remember I have some things to do. You just, uh, stay and eat the pizza. You pay, uh, yeah, right, I've got to go." then leaves in a blur.

The room once again falls silent, and she begrudgingly stands up and takes her wallet, ready to go and pay for her dinner when she sees the one person standing in the way to the room with pizza in a hand, the other scratching the back of his neck. The one who also happens to be the main subject of her talk tonight and the problem to her sleepless yesterday night. Tecna forgets the still open conversation she's just had.

"Hey."

He's in his normal clothes, not any special store uniform. He seems to have just studied and gone late to his shift with no time to change. He stands there, lanky and awkwardly, shuffling from one foot to another, very much the image of a timid schooler being scruntinized too hard.

She's likely staring at him for a couple of minutes as he starts to ramble: "You probably don't want to see me right now, so I'll go. We can just forget about it if you like. I'd very much like that idea, not that I don't like what we did, but I like that, really like that, and I... Anyway, I'd probably go right now. I understand that you don't want to see me, so I'll, yeah." Talking in a breath doesn't do well to him, with how clumsy he is usually, as he backs away and slams full force into the wall in the hallway in a panicky attempt to glasses falls off his face to his lap, while the pizza box drops to the floor, which's very fortunate that the pizza's still in the box and doesn't make a mess.

He's even more flustered than before. As quickly as he can with human speed, he takes the glasses and shoves it into his face, while also standing up and taking the box, his face now a shade of red.

"I'm so sorry, for everything. Not just tonight, but also yesterday night. I'll just go right now. Right,now."

The guy's incident snaps her out of thought.

"Hey, Timmy, wait."

"Yes?" His head spuns around so fast she might be a little light-headed. His face and voice is so hopeful that the next thing out of her mouth makes her slightly whine.

"I buy the pizza, and I haven't paid for it."

"Oh right." His head turns down, he sounds so dejected that she has to say.

"Then can we talk?"

"I- ah- uhm." Taking that as a yes, after giving the money and making sure he has it secure while he's still in a daze, she takes his hand and pulls him towards the sofa, which only makes him more flustered.

They fall into silence for once since she met him, and it's awkward, and she doesn't like it one bit. Supposed she needs to say something when she's the one who drags him into the room, she blurts out, "Do you like me?"

Okay, that might not be the smoothiest thing she's ever said. No one would start a conversation by asking whether the other likes them or not. She intends to change the direction.

"I mean,-"

"Yes."

She's mostly shocked, and surprised, and other emotions that she can't decipher yet, but she opts to choose it's a positive feeling.

His face's now the color of a tomato, and as usual, he starts to ramble, "Well, it's not like I don't. Isn't it obvious? I always act like that around you that who can't see must be blind-", she'd let that go, as she's the one who didn't see it, "-and our friends see that as well-", that is... unexpected, "-I mean, who wouldn't like you, right? You're the most intelligent and gorgeous girl with that knowledge about..."

"Okay, okay." If she doesn't stop him now, he'd stay that way until tomorrow, who knows? "It's just one question, simple and short. Can't your answer be that way?"

She stares straight into his hazel brown eyes. He nervously tucks the glasses back, gulps loudly and says in a whispering voice, "I really love you." but she still can hear it.

This time he actually falls quiet, anxiously picking up his shirt and stealing his glance at her from his look at the ground.

"Oh." She know that's not the right answer, but she still decides what to say. She wants everything to be fair: he gives her the answer that she secretly like, and she has to say the same thing back. So she thinks back to her conversation with Musa not long ago, thinks about every quite intended questions her friend asks, think about the first question that she might intentionally didn't answer, her friend's exclamation and everything. And she decides, after all, what's to lose?

"I like you too."

His face is a mixture of shock and happiness. But she isn't done with herself.

"Well, perhaps love you. I'm not sure. Depending on what everyone talks and romace story describe, then I probably love you."

Timmy's chuckling now. She looks at him questioningly.

"No, no, it's not you. I'm just-. You're really adorable, you know that?"

She's sure her cheeks are tinted pink a little. She's not really common with compliments, as most people find her logical thoughts and decisions annoying and crazy. It seems not with him, though.

"Thank you."

After the heartfelt confession, both of them, again, don't know what to say, ignoring each other's eyes at all cost.

"Well, I have shift and..."

"You want to have pizza?" She doesn't want him to go that fast when they've just acknowledged their feelings. That's irrational, but a little sometimes is alright, right?

He debates with himself, then determination flashes, "Yes, sure." then deflates a little, "if you don't mind."

"No, not at all."

A quick phone call and both of them settle in the sofa, TV on and pizza ready, experiencing the first feeling of cuddling with each other.

"I think I'd probably want to thank our friends latter."

"Thank our friends?"

"Oops."

...

Last but not least, thanks for reading!

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