Disclaimer: I don't own Monsters University. Obviously.

Tutor
Part 1

"Mike?"

Mike jumped like he'd been stung, then recognized Sulley's distorted reflection in the silver surface of the scare games trophy. He turned, clearing his throat. "Yeah?"

"Um…" Sulley glanced at the trophy and grimaced, stuffing his oversized hands in his varsity jacket. "Watcha doin' back here?"

"Oh, you know…" Mike shrugged narrow shoulders, his gaze wondering to the portraits on the walls. The fiery, four-eyed Bill "the Bull" Quasi glared down at him in all his infamy. Mike shrugged again. The muted electronic beat leaked through the walls in the narrow hall and thrummed in the floorboards. "… What're you doing here?" Mike asked.

"Bathroom," Sulley said, a little too quickly. "Haven't found it yet. You wouldn't happen to know…?"

"I thought you'd been here before?"

"A few times, but it's a maze, and I was… fairly intoxicated on previous occasions." Sulley quirked a lazy smile, scratching absently at the blue fuzz on his broad jaw.

Mike's Adam's apple bobbed. "Right." He glanced at his roommate skeptically. "You drunk now?"

Sulley broke into a grin, flashing his monstrous canines. "More or less."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Sulley laughed. "I don't know, dude."

Mike pursed his lips. "You seem to be having a lot of fun, for someone who didn't want to come to this party."

"I loosened up. That's kind of what I do. You should try it sometime."

Mike scowled. "I'm loose. I mean-"

Sulley laughed. "You're pretty much the opposite of 'loose,' man."

"I mean," Mike stressed, "That I can have fun sometimes."

"I haven't seen you dance once tonight."

"I'm still having fun."

"You'd have more fun if this was a library."

"Shut up."

"At least have a beer. I've never seen you drink."

"Yeah, well… yeah."

"Yeah? You want a beer?"

Mike shrugged noncommittally, aware that Sulley would take that as a yes. Sulley grinned again, wrapped his meaty hand around Mike's pencil-thin wrist and dragged him out of the Scare Hall of Fame and through the pulsing crowd. At some point, he plucked a beer from a cooler, handed it back to Mike, and continued to lead him away from the throng. Mike found himself outside, on a balcony overlooking the lake. He shivered in the night air. Sulley sunk heavily into a cushioned loveseat and beckoned Mike over. The beer was sweating in Mike's hand.

"Your tail is in the way."

Sulley shrugged, eyes closed and head lulling back against the cushions, exposing his thick neck. "Sit on it," he replied. "I don't give a fuck. You're like a feather."

Mike bit his tongue and sat gingerly, nudging Sulley's shaggy tail out of the way. Sulley's general bigness was spilling into his personal space, but that happened a lot, now that he stopped to think about it. Sulley's tree-trunk arms were draped across the back of the smallish couch and his long legs were splayed. Mike forced himself not to make himself smaller. He adopted Sulley's posture, slouching into the cushion and stretching out his skinny frame, but this only reminded him of how woefully miniscule he was by comparison. Sulley was a mountain, and he knew it. He used his size to get what he wanted. Mike's only comfort was and had always been his brain.

Mike stared at the bottle in his lap for a few seconds before taking a swig, fighting a grimace at the taste. He could feel Sulley watching him.

"So, you're not much of a party animal, huh?"

Mike grimaced. "You're just now figuring that out."

"No. But hey, you could have surprised me."

Mike raised an eyebrow and took another drink. "You know…" he hesitated. "I thought you were still mad at me."

"Huh?"

"I thought you blamed me for getting you kicked out of the program."

Sulley stared at him, heavy-lidded. "I don't really do grudges. Too much work."

Mike hmphed. "Here I thought you'd realized it was because you never study."

Sulley tensed next to Mike and looked at him for a minute. Mike started to wonder if he was about to be punched in the face, but Sulley backed off. "If you weren't so darn cute, I'd smash that beer over your head."

Mike bristled. "Cute?! I'm not cute! Why would you say that?"

"Dude. What are you, like 4'7"? You're tiny."

"That doesn't mean I'm not scary!"

"Chill."

"You chill!"

Sulley laughed, slid the beer out of Mike's hands, briefly tangling their fingers, and he gulped half the bottle. He put the beer back in Mike's lap. "What's the next challenge?" he asked, changing the subject.

"You don't know? It's the teenager maze."

"Oh, right."

"We got this," Mike continued. "Training starts bright and early tomorrow."

Sulley groaned. "Why? We don't have classes. We have all day to-"

"Do you want to win or not?"

Sulley grunted. "I know how to scare, man."

"Yeah, yeah, we all know that. You're daddy's terrifying little monster. It's not like I don't know you're scary, ok? But there's a reason that we're here. Why do you think there's a whole program dedicated to scaring? Some people know better than you. You don't know everything, alright?" There was a long, uncomfortable silence. "If you need- I mean, if you want help- studying, I mean… I can tutor you."

Sulley snorted. "I don't think so."

"When we get back into the program, Mr. Knight will expect you to know the techniques and phobias. I've never seen you pick up a book that you weren't going to use to prop up a table leg." Mike looked up from his beer. "Sullivan?"

Sulley had his eyes closed and was breathing deep. "… I'll figure it out," he said eventually.

"Suit yourself. But you're still training tomorrow. The team is depending on you-"

"Alright! Shut up." Sulley's hand flopped heavily onto Mike's head and ruffled his green hair.

"Hey!" Mike protested, tugging at Sulley's sleeve.

Sulley's lips twitched. "Cute," he said.

Author's Note: This is intended to be a two-shot. I will post the second part once it's finished. Reviews are welcome. Thank you for reading.