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Neito let out a completely unnecessary melodramatic groan as Tenya marked the practice math problem wrong. He draped himself over his desk. "I'm bored, let's do anything else. Like I don't know, let Bakugou use me as a training dummy."
"You know you can't afford a low grade in Mr. Ectoplasm's supplemental exam without having to retake the course. And that would be worse," Tenya attempted to reason.
"So? That's just a fresh start," Neito replied stubbornly.
Tenya pointedly didn't give him an answer for that. A tactic he found to be very effective when Neito was being purposefully contradictory.
Neito groaned. "Why do we even have to learn math? What am I supposed to do with it? Bore the villains into submission? Actually, that might work but torture is illegal. So yes, it is completely pointless."
"You're not being tortured. Math is a very practical skill that serves as excellent practice for critical thinking and reasoning skills. Two things I know for a fact you are quite skilled at."
"Obviously not," Neito grumbled.
"No," Tenya said pointing at the paper on the problem Neito just tried. "Your process is absolutely correct. Your problem is skipping the checks and ignoring details along the way to make sure the basic calculations are right. If you did that you'd have noticed you misread your 4 down here for a 9 up here. Actually, you could probably organize your work better too."
"Wait! So I was right. Then I'll be fine," Neito said, getting up and stretching.
Tenya grabbed his hand as he moved away. "No, that is not what I mean at all."
"So I am doomed? Good so why waste our time with this when we could--"
"Neito!" Tenya snapped. "You are perfectly capable of this. You just have to…" Tenya paused as a lightbulb went off in his head on how to force Neito to care enough to try. "have adequate motivation."
Neito’s body stiffened as he sensed something that alarmed him in Tenya’s tone. Tenya continued, “We're going to do one more set of problems. If you get a failing grade you’ll be deprived of my attention starting tomorrow until after the exam next week. In which case, I hope you dedicate the time solely to studying.”
Neito laughed maniacally. "That is utterly evil."
“Do you doubt I’m serious?” Tenya challenged.
He kept laughing. “Oh no, you're always serious. That makes it surprisingly terrifying. I’m not doing it, not at all.”
“A forfeit is a loss,” Tenya strongly informed him. A horrified betrayed look crossed Neito’s face and Tenya sighed. “Believe it or not I don’t enjoy the idea either. But I’m not worried, as long as you take your time, and take it seriously, I have full confidence in your ability.”
“My ability in Math?"
"Yes absolutely. Like I tried to tell you, your process is fine. You know how to do it, you just need to put care into it," Tenya said.
Neito still didn't look at all convinced. Tenya sighed seeing he needed to do more. "If you fail, I'll put ‘Class 1-B is the best class' on our homeroom memos for the rest of the semester."
"Don't you mean if I pass?"
"No. I actually don't want to do that. That is why I am betting on you passing,” Tenya said determined.
Neito narrowed his eyes, clearly processing this situation deeper than any of the study questions they've tried so far today. "I could get them wrong on purpose."
"The thought occurred to me. But I'm also willing to bet you won’t."
He smirked. "Are you absolutely sure of that?"
"I suppose I'll find out," Tenya replied, opening the practice book to a random page with ten problems. He grabbed the answer book and headed over to Neito's bed to wait.
Neito flashed another smirk before settling back down. He twirled his pencil as he worked acting like he didn’t care. However, the movements were slightly stiff, and Neito sat with better posture than he had all day. Those clues assured Tenya he didn't actually want to fail at least. The last part of that bet had been a risk, Neito would love for him to put that addition to the daily class memos. But it was the quickest way to assure Neito he didn't want to separate for a week. The threat was a bit cold by Tenya’s usual standards. But he couldn’t think of a better penalty that Neito would actually take seriously.
A little bit over an hour passed until Neito said he was done. That was triple the time per problem than he spent before.
Tenya got up and went back over to the desk, taking the chair now. Despite his faith in Neito’s abilities, he was admittedly a bit nervous too. If he was somehow wrong this would backfire quickly. Neito would lose all motivation to study, and he would have to add that memo. The former part was actually a greater concern since that meant Neito's failure would be partially his fault. But really he didn't see this going anywhere without doing something to change Neito’s mindset. "Well let’s see.”
Looking over the paper, Neito’s organization still was tricky to follow. But the first problem was right. Good sign. Looking closer at it the problem actually had checks applied to them at each step. Amazing how much simple care could make a difference. He hoped Neito would learn that details were important, even if he’d never admit it...
“You’re trying to kill me! Just look at the answers and mark them right or wrong. I even bothered to circle them,” Neito said impatiently.
“Oh, right,” Tenya said. He did get sidetracked a bit in trying to see what Neito was doing. He looked back at the answer book and marked the next question right also. It didn’t take long for him to go down the list.
After he marked the last one, Tenya turned around in his chair to face Neito. “They are all right,” he said pleased.
“Wait… all of them?” Neito said, heading leaning over now and looking at the paper. “Even that ridiculous number 4?”
Tenya smiled at how surprised Neito seemed. Tenya felt a thrill of his own spreading within him. It was strangely flattering that the threat of his absence could motivate such a change, while the threat of failing a class didn't.
As Neito was leaning over him to look at the paper, Tenya pulled him closer, giving him a kiss for an award. He meant for it to be a quick and very tasteful one. Obviously though, Neito felt like he deserved more leaning closer in and pinning Tenya against the back of the chair. The chair creaked a bit alarmingly, but Tenya found himself too relaxed to care.
When Neito released him Tenya spoke up. "You're going to do great."
Neito was silent for a second and looked down at his shuffling feet. "Well if you really think that...” he glanced back up looking Tenya in the eyes and gave a confident smile. “Then I suppose I can’t disappoint.”