Reward and Punishment (AU Tutor! Erwin x Reader)

“Congratulations (f/n), another F.” My math teacher sneered as he handed me another failed math test of mine. “At this rate, you’ll be repeating this course next year as well.”

“Glad to hear that, sir. I sure do enjoy seeing you every day of my life.” I pitched in with sarcasm. He scowled and waved me off. At the end of the class period, I crumpled up the test and threw it in the trash. I don’t need a piece of paper to remind me how much I hate this subject.

“Guess what dear?” My mother excitedly spoke as I walked into the house after school. “We’ve hired another tutor for you!”

I rolled my eyes as I removed my shoes. She kept on feeding me information about this new tutor as I walked. I didn’t bother to listen; they’ll just give up on me halfway like all the others have before. To them, I was an impossible case. In my defense, it wasn’t even my fault! All of those shitheads just handed me problem after problem and expected me to pull the answer out of thin air! A hundred dollars wasted, that’s what I could call them.

“…And he’s one of Rivaille’s close friends too!” My mom squealed, referring to the grouchy cousin of mine. He’s cool. We acknowledge each other. My cousin’s vey smart though; top of the class unlike me, the average student who was barely passing math. Barely.

“He’s in his first year of college and I heard he was valedictorian at his high school as well! Mrs. Springer next door told me how he brought her Connie’s math grade up from a D to a B! According to her, he’s a very handsome young man as well!” She continued. I grimaced. It was also weird to hear older women praising a younger man’s looks. Especially if that woman was your forty-year old next door neighbor. Mrs. Springer was a weird one.

“So what do you think?” Mother asked and I shrugged.

“Dunno. Don’t really care. When’s the guy coming?”

“In an hour. He’ll be here Monday thru Friday for two hours or so.” She answered with a smile. I huffed. Two extra hours of math a day. Perfect. Must be every high schooler’s greatest dream.

At exactly four o’clock, our doorbell rang and my mom answered it.

“Welcome Erwin! I’m so glad you were able to make it.” My mother greeted the new tutor with an overly high-pitched voice that made me want to shrink under my covers and protect my poor little ears forever.

The man said something that I couldn’t quite place and my mother answered with a laugh.

“She’s upstairs in her room right now. I’ll take you there.” Two pairs of footsteps went up the stairs and they knocked on my door.

“Come in.” The two figures came in my room, one being my mom and the other being the new tutor, Erwin. He was definitely tall, blonde hair, and very…defined eyebrows. Handsome, nonetheless.

“(Name) like I told you earlier, this is Erwin Smith your new tutor.” He smiled and reached out as an invitation to shake my hand. I returned the gesture and introduced myself.

“It’s a pleasure to be able to tutor you.” He told me and I nodded. Seeing that we were getting along, mother slipped out of the room. “Let’s get started then.” He pulled out a piece of paper from his bag and handed it to me. I stared at the numerous equations and story problems scattered across the page.

“Relax, this isn’t too hard. I just want to see how much you know.” I nodded slowly and sat down to get to work. Like Erwin said, the problems were fairly simple and straightforward. I recalled most of the answers from my first year of high school math.

“Here you go sir.” I muttered and handed him the completed paper, which he accepted with a tiny smile.

“Just Erwin is fine. We’re around the same age anyway.” He told me as he scanned through the paper. “Good job. It seems like you got the basics down.”

Afterwards, he asked me to take out my homework out and together, he showed me how to do each problem step by step.

I grinned as I waved goodbye to my new tutor. For the first time in quite a long while, I was actually looking forward to my next meeting with my tutor. Maybe, just maybe, I won’t have to fail this math class.
---
Over the next few weeks, Erwin came over everyday to tutor me, yet I still couldn’t quite grasp all of the concepts.

“Ahh…this is hopeless! I’ll never be able to understand all this by the time the test rolls around!” I groaned. I really appreciate his help, I really did. He was ten times better than all of the other tutors that I’ve had and he was a patient man, carefully explaining every little detail until I understood it. I don’t know why, he’s made everything seem so easy but I just can’t remember any of the details! I glared at the paper sitting on my desk with a big fat C- written on it as if my intense glare will magically change the grade.

Erwin hummed, deep in thought. All the while, my mother was downstairs peacefully making cookies without a care in the world. The blonde cleared his throat.

“I was thinking about this for a while, but I think I know a way to improve your grade.”

I tilted my head to the side. “How?”

“With a system of reward and punishment.”

“Ehhh…” The reward part sounds appealing but punishment…it’s quite a strong word. “What do you mean by punishment…exactly?” His blue eyes scanned my room until he found what h was looking for.

“Walk over there and bring me that textbook please.” He told me, pointing to the book resting on the edge of my dresser. I was confused since that was my chemistry textbook, but I got up from my seat anyway.

“This one right, ah!” My right hand flew to my bottom where a sharp hit made the skin stung. I whipped around in surprise as blood rose up to my cheeks. “Erwin!” Nonchalantly, he spun his chair around to look at me with a blank face, ruler in hand. If one looked closely, they could see the corners of his lips lift up to form a small smirk.

“…and the reward?” I asked him after I handed him the book, which he merely glanced at before it was placed on the side of my desk.

“Solve this problem correctly then I’ll show you.” He told me as he slid a piece of paper with an equation scrawled on it to me across the desk. He’ll “show me”…he says. Unconsciously, my heartbeat began to race as I anticipated what would happen next. The question was a simple one; one that I’d knew how to do before he came to tutor me. I solved it with ease.

“There. Show me my reward.” He glanced over my answer and he looked at me with a different expression in his eyes. The usual, composed look was replaced with a dangerous blue flame. His hand brushed my hair back and cupped my cheek.

His soft pair of lips captured mine in a simple, light kiss. Unsatisfied, I gripped onto his shirt collar and pulled him back with a nip to his bottom lip. He let out a pleased growl that was enough to make me shiver. Erwin’s strong hands moved downwards to grip onto my hips as he pulled me up.

I hooked my arms around his neck, my legs around his waist as he held onto me with his lips still encased on my own. My fingers snaked up to entangle in his blonde mess of hair. His slick tongue forced itself into my mouth and I gently tugged at his locks as he explored my wet cavern.

It was mind-blowing and I was left gasping for breath as he pulled away.

“Don't expect this from me every time.” He whispered and lowered me. Still a bit fuzzy from earlier, I nodded.

He combed his hair back and gathered his belongings. “I’m leaving now (Name). See you tomorrow.”

“See you.” I called out just as my mother told us that the cookies were done.
---
The reward and punishment proved to be successful as my grades were visibly improving.

“Ah, I knew I made the right choice!” My mother boasted. If only she knew…

Erwin was relentless when it came to punishments. I’ve come to hate the ruler that he held in his hand. While the abrupt sting and the numbing sensation that came afterwards were intriguing at first, it had slowly become more of an annoyance, a fear. I’ve begun to fear getting the incorrect answer. I’ve started to pay attention more in class and to what Erwin taught me. I’d begun to understand this complex subject called mathematics. As I advanced further, my rewards became more frequent.

After the initial kiss, my rewards slowed down to something more innocent and then escalated once more. What started out as tiny pecks slowly morphed into longer, lingering kisses.

Today, Mom was out on a shopping trip. Therefore, Erwin and I were left in the house alone. She trusts Erwin so much nowadays that she didn’t even bother to check up on us anymore. “Might as well just give him the key to the house”, she said aloud one day. I looked at her as if she was completely out of her mind. She laughed and told me it’s just a random thought, but he was pretty much like family now. If only she knew…

Today, I didn’t miss any questions today. As a reward, Erwin pulled me onto his lap and kissed my nose as I straddled him.

“You did good today. Are you starting to understand this chapter better?” I happily nodded and he kissed me. My eyes fluttered shut and I held onto the armrests of the chair to keep myself from falling. His hand snuck under my shirt and long fingers caressed my stomach.
“Hehe, stop, that tickles!” Erwin’s nose brushed against my hair as his hummed in amusement.

“Hm...does it now?”

“Uh huh.” He said nothing in response and his fingers paused for a few seconds and just when I thought it was safe, he began to tickle my sides. I laughed until tears came out of my eyes and shouted out pleas for him to stop. His actions ceased when I let go of the armrest and nearly tumbled to the ground.

“Careful now. Wouldn’t want you to bump your head and forget everything I’ve taught you now, would we?” I shook my head and he brought me closer again. Just as I bent my head down for another kiss, the home phone rang. Erwin’s face showed displeasure for a split second as I reached over to answer the phone.

“Hello?” It was Connie’s mom, Mrs. Springer. That’s just lovely. She was a nice woman and all but Mrs. Springer was known as the neighborhood chatterbox. Erwin patiently waited for me to finish up until the fifth minute of the phone conversation dragged by.

“Oh yeah, school is going fine for-Agh!” I gasped into the speaker. That little bastard nipped my neck! On the other end, Mrs. Springer asked whether everything was alright.

“Everything’s fine. I just…stubbed my toe.” She sighed in relief and continued to animatedly describe all of the clubs that Connie planned to join. Erwin kissed up and down my neck, occasionally leaving a small bite mark here and there until I pushed him away.

“(Name).” He grunted. I placed my index finger on his lips to silence the blonde. However, his naughty antics did not stop there.

“I’m not too sure when she’s coming back home, you know how long shopping trips can take.” The male slipped my finger into his mouth and I watched with wide eyes as his tongue swirled around the digit. His mouth did wonders to my finger. The way that the slick muscle sensually flick around my pointer. The way that his teeth gently tugged at it. I had completely tuned out Mrs. Springer by now as I gaped at Erwin.

“(Name)? Hello, (Name)? Are you still there?”

“I-I’m sorry, Mrs. Springer! I just kind of spaced out.”

“That’s alright! So the other day Connie came up to me and…” She went on and on again and Erwin released my finger with a satisfied smirk. Two can play at this game, I thought as I left the same finger hanging onto my bottom lip.

“Mrs. Springer, I have to go take care of some business right now so let’s talk again some other time. It was very nice to be able to talk to you today.”

“Ah I see. It was nice talking to you too (Name). Well then, I suppose I should get started on dinner now. Have a nice day!” She sounded disappointed that the call had to end so soon.

“You too, Mrs. Springer.” I told her and ended the call. I flicked a mischievous glance towards Erwin’s blue orbs.

“Say, Mr. Smith…” I began as I loosened his tie. “I’ve always thought that you were the innocent type. I guess I was mistaken.”

“Innocent?” He asked as he tugged the edge of my shirt down with his teeth to expose my bare shoulder. “I’ve never heard of such a word.”