The Problem

  Hikari had a problem.

It was a problem he assumed that a lot of people had during their lifetimes, a problem that most sixth grade girls had.

Hikari had a crush. On a boy.

This would most likely be okay if he was a twelve year old girl, but he was not. He was a seventeen year old guy.

This could simply not be true! Hikari had always liked girls! No way, no freaking way he had a crush on this kid he had met three days ago!

His name was David, simple enough. Skin the color of caramel and big brown eyes, dark hair that was plastered down with gel but curled on the nape of his neck...

Wait, Hikari even noticed the hair on the back of his neck? Oh great, this was already showing itself to be wonderful!

All sarcasm aside, Hikari had literally no idea why he liked this kid.

Wait no, David wasn't a kid, he was in his grade, only a year younger actually, it sounded creepy saying he liked "a kid".

He was just as cute as the next nerd with glasses, a prissy outfit and a book carried under his arm. Maybe it was his charm?

Hikari thought back to their first meeting. In an alley beside his apartment.

Casey and Jonas were there, cigarettes hanging out of each of their mouths. Nothing different. Besides the whole fact that Casey was holding the turtle neck of the local nerd and punching him in the face. Yep, that was totally normal for a teenage boy to spend his time doing.

Hikari had just walked out of his apartment building and walked over to them, puffing smoke from his own toxic habit. It had stormed just before and the smell of the rain was still drifting through the air. He looked down into one of the puddles at himself. His copper eyes glared at him through the rippling water, he combed his messy bright orange hair over and carried on.

Then he saw David. Hair falling into that perfect face that his friend's were ruining with rough punches and blows, blood streaming from his nose into his mouth and more.

Hikari was not going to let his friends do this to some kid, nerd, guy, whatever you want to call him.

With a short walk, he was in the alley and shouting at his friends. "Casey! What the hell do you two think you're doing?" He questioned, causing Casey to drop the kid.

"Just having a bit of fun, weren't we, Davie?" Casey said with a grin before discarding his cigarette bud somewhere on the street.

"Fun? Fun? This is fun? What did he do to you, huh?" Hikari questioned, his face merely inches from Casey's. Casey swallowed in response. Nothing was the real answer and he knew that would just make Hikari even more angry at them.

"So nothing then, he was just walking down the street and you decided to beat him up. You guys are fuckin' bullies," Hikari said, turning away from Casey and walking over to the kid whose turtleneck was covered in drips of blood cascading from his nose.

"Hey, you okay?" Hikari asked, a little softer. He just shook his head, staring away from him. "How about we get you home, yeah?" He nodded, still not talking.

Casey made some kind of noise in disgust, to which he was met with an obscene gesture from Hikari's hand.

Hikari put one of his arms under the kid's, holding him up straight. He guessed he had received several painful kicks in the groin and wasn't going to make things worse by making him walk alone.

"Okay, so, yeah hi. I'm Hikari, and you are?" Hikari tried making small talk, standing very awkwardly because he was probably a foot taller than him.

"David, I'm in your geometry class." Oh yes, he was the kid who sat in the very back of the class, always answering the questions their teacher gave correctly. Hikari hadn't even noticed it was him with all of this blood on his face.

"Here, dude, take this," Hikari reached into his jacket pockets and searched for one of the tissues he always carried. When he finally found the disposable handkerchief from his apparently never ending pockets, he pushed it into David's hands.

"There, try to stop the bleeding for now, alright?" Hikari advised, David nodded. "Alright, if you don't mind me asking, where do you live so I can walk you there?"

"Make a left at this stop sign," David said, giving him directions, "it's not too far from here, I live on Kimmel Street with my sister," Hikari nodded and started walking in that direction.

They shared awkward small talk all the way to David's house, first discussing their school, then a bit about their hobbies and other things.

"I work at a diner, smoke, and play on my phone, how about you?" Hikari said, no longer wrapping his arm around David, as not to cause him discomfort. Or for himself.

"Smoking is hardly a hobby, you know," David chastised, keeping the bloodied tissue under his nose.

"I know, but I do it a lot and it just kinda becomes one, ya' know?" Hikari said, shrugging.

"Nope, not at all,"

"Anyways, what are your hobbies, I'm still waiting,"

"... Oh, the usual nerdy things,"

"Sorry, I have absolutely no idea what nerds usually spend their free time doing, please enlighten me," Hikari joked, making David smile.


And that's where Hikari knew this was going to be a problem. That first smile, a lopsided smile made Hikari's heart skip a beat. He realized he was holding his breath and let it out, averting his gaze from David.


"Oh, um, I didn't think you would really care, I just thought you were doing this so your friends wouldn't get in trouble or something," David admitted to him. Hikari felt a bit sad from that.

"Those idiots? They deserve to get in trouble for this, ya' know? They had no right to hurt you,"

"I completely agree with you and would love to chat, but sadly, this is my house, and I don't think my sister would be too happy to see me with a guy in a leather jacket while I have a bloody nose and other injuries, so I think you should go," David explained, motioning towards his house with his free hand. Hikari completely understood, he'd been framed for things he hadn't done before and definitely didn't want it happening again.

"Goodbye, David,"

"Goodbye, Hikari," They smiled at each other before walking their separate ways.

Hikari's face was burning. Actually burning! He was blushing because of some kid! No, not kid, that's creepy. Because of some teenage boy in his geometry class whom he had walked home!


And that was where the problem started, while he was working that night, he thought back to him, his adorable face that was blood soaked and in pain but still adorable somehow and the way he smiled, just thinking about it made him smile. And frown. He had a crush on a guy.


So it was his smile that he liked so much, then? That was probably part of the reason, but there was more to it than a lopsided smile.

The next time they met was walking through the halls at school, Hikari saw David walking to class and decided to walk with him.

"Hey, how's it going?" He noticed the bandage on David's nose.

"Oh hi, pretty good, except that you're friend broke my nose, no big deal," David said sarcastically.

"Man, I'm really sorry about him. Mind if I accompany you to geometry?" Hikari asked, completely changing the subject.

"Uh, sure, why not? I just didn't really expect you to ever talk to me again, to be honest," David explained, laughing nervously.

"Why would you think that?" Hikari asked.

"Really? You really have to ask?" David asked in complete disbelief.

"Yes!"

"Okay, you're really cool and all that and I'm a complete nerd who is five and a half feet tall and not cool at all and you're really attractive and I'm not and-" David started, readjusting his glasses.

"Did you just call me attractive?" Hikari interrupted him, grinning.

"That's not what I meant!" David said, his face flushing slightly.

"Mhm, suuuure, though I might say, you look a lot better without blood all over your face," Hikari joked, David chuckled a little and shoved his hands into the pockets of his khaki pants. Soon they were in class and sat in their seats on opposite sides of the room.


Hikari caught himself staring at him more often than he wanted to be true.


And then, there was earlier today, at the end of the day. The bell had just rung and Hikari was one of the first people out of his seat and to the door, before his teacher stopped him and called him over. Mrs. Hill called him over right before he had escaped. He sighed and walked through the other kids who were going the opposite direction over to her.

"Yes, Mrs. Hill?" Hikari asked, just wanting to go home already. Just as he finished speaking David walked into the room.

"Wait, him?" David questioned, his Star Wars backpack slung over his shoulder. Hikari was very confused and looked back and forth between them

"Yes, him. Hikari, I'm sure you've noticed that your grades have dropped," Mrs. Hill began, smiling at the both of them.

"So? What different does it make?" Hikari asked impatiently.

"What difference does it make! Hikari, you won't be able to pass eleventh grade if you continue like this!" Mrs. Hill explained,he frowned. "That is why we have Mr. Almeida here."

"What is Mr. Almeida here to do exactly?"

"David is going to be your tutor,"

"My what? I need a tutor?" Hikari asked.

"Hikari, it would be for the best, it's not so bad! David here has tutored many students before, it could make a huge difference on your grades and your attitude," Mrs. Hill explained, pushing her blond hair out of her face.

"Fine! I'll be tutored, whatever, everything's good," Hikari fumed, not exactly sure why he was getting frustrated.

"Fantastic, just get theses forms signed by your parents and you're good to go!" Mrs. Hill cheerily said, handing them both blue permission slips. David nodded and put it into his backpack. He waved before walking out of the classroom.

"Thank you, Mrs. Hill," Hikari sighed before leaving. She smiled brightly and nodded at him.

"Anytime, Mr. Ishikawa." Hikari rushed out of the room into the halls which were hardly crowded and found David.

"Hey, yeah hi. So, let's discuss this whole tutoring thing," Hikari said, getting straight to the point.

"Okay, um, we meet after school on certain days and study, that's about it," David explained, Hikari sighed.

"That's it. We met two ago and now you're my tutor? I don't even need a tutor!" They were now outside, walking in the direction of David's house.

"According to your grades, you do,"

"You saw my grades too? Great! I am not stupid!" Hikari insisted.

"I never said you were," David said.

"But you were thinking it!"

"How do you know what I'm thinking? You don't, so don't make false accusations,"

Hikari took a deep breath and let it out. "Listen, I only have bad grades because I miss school so much, ya' know?"

"No, I don't know. Stop missing school so much then, and maybe we wouldn't be having this conversation,"

"It's not my fault that I miss school! I have to work! I have to pay bills!"

"Don't your parents pay them?" David asked, more than slightly confused.

"I don't live with my parents, I hate my parents, I live alone," Hikari said, running his hand through his orange hair.

"Oh, that makes more sense," David admitted, twiddling his fingers awkwardly.

"Yeah..."

"Well," David began, breaking the silence that was surrounding them. "If it makes you feel any better, my parents were killed in a car crash when I was eight,"

"Why would that make me feel better at all? That's horrible!"

"I don't know, I'm just trying to help!"

"That didn't help at all! Now I just feel bad!"

"Sorry! I'm sorry! I'm really bad at talking to people!"

"Yeah, I can tell," Hikari said awkwardly. "Anyways," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small slip of paper. "Got a pencil?"

"Um, yeah, one moment." David took off his backpack and got into one of the pockets, pulling out a Star Wars pencil and handing it to Hikari.

"You really do like this kinda stuff don't you?" Hikari asked, scribbling something down onto the paper.

"What kind of stuff?" David asked, smiling because he knew exactly what kind of stuff.

"Geeky stuff, Star Wars, that kinda thing, ya' know?" Hikari said, giving him back the pencil and the slip of paper. David looked at the slip, then back at Hikari, then the paper again.

"...Is this you're, um, is this what I think it is?" He inquired.

"It is, yes," Hikari said, nodding at him.

"You just gave me your number. You really just... Wait, this isn't just some fake number or anything?" Hikari laughed.

"No, of course not. If we're going to be hanging out more often, than you might as well have my number." And then he winked, feeling slightly stupid afterwards.

"Well, I better get going, thank you for, erm, walking home with me," David said as they neared his small white house.

"Oh yeah, no problem, I-" Just as he had started, a silver car pulled up beside them. No, don't worry, it wasn't some stalker or kidnapper, it was David's older sister. Hikari looked over at the woman with curly black hair and caramel colored skin and guessed this.

"Ooooh, Davie! Who's this? Finally got a boyfriend?" She joked in a manner more similar to a teenage girl than the twenty eight year old she was.

"Cindy! No, this is Hikari, he's the guy I told you about," David explained, blood rushing to his face to form a dark red blush.

"Oh the cute kid with orange hair! The one you said was hot-" Cindy cooed, Hikari laughed, so he was a cute orange haired kid, huh?

"-Cindy, it would be rather nice if you shut up, like right now, preferably," David snapped irritably. Cindy giggled.

"I'm just messing. It was very nice meeting you, Hikari," she said, grinning
at the both of them.

"You too, good bye, David," said Hikari.

"Goodbye, Hikari," said David. He began to walk back the other way, towards his apartment to start getting ready for work.