Teach Me Something (Rukia/Shiro)

“Me neither… Well… I meant… Seeing myself as a student. Erm… You’re a nice teacher, I guess. Pretty sure I paid more attention in your class than the others.”

He started that train of thought poorly, and he ended it poorly. Does he even pay attention in his other classes? If you say you’re doing better than zero, then, what is that, like a one? Maybe he shouldn’t have brought up all of that. He can’t take it back now, so it’s probably better to try and subtract the damage he probably caused by giving her something nice. By nice, that means putting his head in her hair, sliding it down and giving a quick little head smooch. That’ll get her, right?

“My friends aren’t completely bombing though, so that means you’re doing something right. Let me tell you, they’re pretty stupid.”

Though, it probably doesn’t take a genius to get into the Gotei. They’ll be grunts and maybe work their way up a bit with brute force. He’s unsure, but worrying too much about them is whatever.

"Well, I'm not in the business of talking about all my students badly, so I'll just say that I'm glad to hear even your friends are doing well."

Of course, Rukia agreed with his assessment entirely. She certainly always had students that were a lot slower than the rest, and part of her wanted to just fob them off to someone else so she could keep a quicker pace. But it was her job as a teacher to do her best for them, so she did, and she had to admit that it was a little rewarding when they actually passed.

"Of course you'd be paying attention, though. It's only natural when I'm up there."

It was something resembling an attempt to be flirtatious, or coy, but Rukia's own faltering confidence halfway through the sentence, on top of the fact that it just hadn't been very smooth at all, meant that the whole thing just sort of fell flat, and her face turned a faint shade of pink as the sentence echoed through her mind a few more times. That'd been pretty stupid, but honestly...she didn't know what else to say. She wasn't used to these sort of conversations, and part of her had just wanted to avoid fumbling a response to what had been a pretty serious point.

"You're a good student, I think. Even if you are a little abnormal."

“...”

She’s still trying. This must be how it feels to work with subpar students, but he probably finds this a bit more endearing than what Rukia feels when someone can’t figure out her class. It’s hard to not fall into a blissful lull. He could listen to her fail at trying to be flirty all day long. It’s cute, but he could have lived without the abnormal comment. He’s not abnormal. He’s normal. He’d argue his normalcy, but that’d be a waste of time. He doesn’t have to prove himself to her.

“Listen up, Rukia. Of course I paid attention. You turned around, I looked up. You turned back, I looked down.”

There are suggestions being suggested, and he’s not even trying to hide his shit eating grin. Why wouldn’t he try to make her blush worse? Now she’s like a fruit basket: peach ass with a cherry head. Ooh. Well, now his mind is just in the gutter.

“Huh… Guess I don’t really have to look away now though. You don’t mind, right? It’s hard to keep the eyes from wandering every now and then.”

It would have been easy enough for Rukia to simply blush and stammer out some half-baked retort at that, and admittedly she did turn a darker shade of pink at such a brazen statement from Shiro. But she'd committed to this already, and she felt like it'd be a little mean of her to go back on it now.

"Why would I mind? I'm glad I can keep your attention outside of class."

That wasn't a good one either, but she knew that much. At this point, she wasn't even really trying for these to be especially good. She was just saying whatever came to mind, trying to be genuine for the sake of the conversation. That felt more appropriate.

"I'm alright with wherever your eyes go. Er...as long as they're on me."

She didn't actually feel like that was an entirely necessary thing to clarify, but Rukia knew there was plenty more to look at on other women. It wasn't necessarily that she lacked confidence, but...well, she couldn't really blame him if he did look somewhere else.

“Huh?”

Now, that was new. Shiro didn’t expect her to go that far, but he is glad Rukia pulled a fast one on him like that. His face, at first, had a bit of a shocked expression, but it quickly morphed as he started to chuckle. He wasn’t sure where she was going to go after her first sentence, but he’s glad she hit him with a strong finisher. However, he does feel that her words weren’t as smug as he would have liked. Rukia doesn’t seem the type to overly worry about body type, but Shiro is sure that his girlfriend’s aware of other women and their quirks.

“...”

He was going to tease her, but he felt a sudden need to wrap his arms around her midsection, his hold around her tightening as he leaned back on the bed, pulling her with. His eyes focused on the ceiling, his thoughts bouncing around a bit. Yeah. He could hit her with something to lighten the mood, maybe get a laugh out of her, but that’s not what he’s going to do. Ah. He’s feeling a bit solemn all of a sudden, but that’s alright. Once he found the words, he couldn’t help but scoff and close his eyes a bit to help feel more relaxed.

“Yes, ma’am. I think I’m fine with that stipulation. There’s no one else I’d rather keep my eyes on.”