Disclaimer: I own nothing.

---

Didn't It Rain?

---

Yukimura made the team wait at school for an hour before he finally decided it was useless and cancelled practise for the day. The rain was pouring down outside and no matter how much he glared at it - with much help from Sanada - it refused to stop. They couldn't even train in the gym inside, as it was being used by the football team today.

"And their Captain hates the tennis club," Yukimura explained as they walked home in the rain. "Especially me."

Sanada frowned darkly at this piece of information, and even Yanagi gave the Captain an enquiring look

"You didn't know?" Yukimura continued. "There was this incident a while back. He had a thing for one of our cheerleader girls... She wasn't too happy about it. And he somehow ended up thinking it was our fault that he's an idiot."

"Let me guess. She had a thing for you instead?" Niou asked, not sounding particularly surprised.

"At least he seemed to think so." Yukimura shrugged indifferently.

"It' not a good idea for him to go around making enemies like that," Niou said, shaking his head but sounding quite delighted. "He might get into trouble one day, don't you think, Yagyuu?"

Yagyuu looked at the Captain, but Yukimura didn't make any sign of having heard Niou at all. "Perhaps," Yagyuu conceded, and Niou grinned happily.

Somehow, when Yukimura had finally let them go for the day, the team had decided they were going to Yagyuu's house. Possibly because he was the one that lived the closest to the school, and no one felt like walking too far in the rain or standing around in the rain waiting for a bus. No one had brought an umbrella. It had been sunny that morning.

Sanada and Yanagi both seemed prepared to face the rain, though, and bravely continued on their respective ways as the rest of them stopped outside Yagyuu's house.

Yagyuu's mother didn't look all that pleased at having her home was invaded by not one, but six very wet and very noisy teenage boys. No parental displeasure was going to chase them back into that rain just yet, though. So they all greeted her politely, and Yukimura apologized for the intrusion before they headed for Yagyuu's room.

Yagyuu's bedroom wasn't very large, and the presence of six boys who always for some reason seemed to take up more space than they logically should didn't make it seem any larger. But somehow, they all managed to squeeze in without even paying much attention to that. Kirihara immediately made a beeline for Yagyuu's DVD-player, digging up a movie from his bag, and soon he and Niou were firmly planted in front of Yagyuu's television watching The Lord of the Rings. Jackal, Marui and Yagyuu himself, who were all in the same class, got out their textbooks, sat down on the bed and started working on their English homework.

Yukimura gabbed a stack of tennis magazines from Yagyuu's desk, laid down on his back on the floor with his feet up on Yagyuu's bed, and started reading. He had brought his tennis bag with him into the room, and kept it beside him all the time. Occasionally, he'd lower the magazine to stare accusingly out the window.

Finally, Niou turned away from the television to look at him instead. "Hey Captain! That's about the hundredth time or so that you've sighed and looked up to stare out the window. In the last ten minutes. The rain's not going to stop because you keep doing that."

"We should be practising right now," Yukimura said longingly, eyes still on the raindrops on the window.

"The rest of us are managing just fine," Niou pointed out.

"I'm sure you are," Yukimura said. "But you haven't been kept away from the courts for ages and ages, stuck in a hospital..." Yukimura's voice trailed off. "I want to play as much tennis as I can, now that I... well, can," he finally added.

Niou snorted. "Are you trying to make us feel guilty?"

"Yes," Yukimura said unabashedly, finally turning away from the window and grinning mischievously at Niou.

Niou rolled his eyes. "You need another hobby besides tennis," he decided.

"He has one," Kirihara piped up beside him, never taking his eyes off the television. "He does gardening."

"Oh, I know about the Captain's flowers and plants and things," Niou said dismissively. "I meant something he could do inside. When it's, well, you know," he pointed to the window, "raining."

"Huh," Kirihara said.

"Yes," Niou continued, turning to the trio on the bed who had by now finished their English homework and were working on History essays instead. "Right, gang! We have a mission. We must find a suitable indoor activity for our Captain!"

Jackal and Yagyuu looked up, looked at each other, and promptly returned to their work. Marui, however, looked interested. "Cooking," he said firmly.

Niou snorted. "Marui, you are quite possibly the most predictable person on the planet."

"What? It may be a predictable suggestion but it's also a very good suggestion," Marui said before returning to his essay.

"Also a very boring one," Kirihara said. "You should play more video games instead, Captain."

"I've tried playing tennis video games sometimes," Yukimura said.

"Colour me stunned," Niou muttered.

Yukimura ignored him, and continued. "It's a waste of time. I keep thinking how I could have spent that time playing real tennis instead."

"You're as predictable as Marui sometimes," Niou said.

"If you don't like our suggestions, you can watch this movie with us instead," Kirihara said. "There's this bit coming up next that I've always wanted you to see."

"You've seen this movie before?" Niou asked.

"What, you haven't?" Kirihara asked, surprised, as he scooted over to the side so that Yukimura could have a better view of the television from his place on the floor.

"In place of a Dark Lord, you will have a Queen," the woman on the screen was saying. "Not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!"

Kirihara pressed the stop button and turned to Yukimura. "You know, every time I see that scene, it makes me wonder if you somehow got a hold of the Ring."

Yukimura blinked. "Instead of a Dark Lord, you will have a Queen?" he quoted, raising his eyebrows. "A Queen, Akaya? I'm... Galadriel?"

Kirihara waved his hand dismissingly. "King, Queen, Evil Overlord, whatever. Don't try to distract us from the important part here."

Niou snickered. "Do tell us about the important part, Akaya," he said, apparently finding the turn the conversation had taken rather interesting.

"The important part was the stuff about being stronger than the foundations of the earth and all that," Kirihara explained. "It would explain how you keep beating me."

Yukimura stared at him for a moment, and then shrugged. "All shall love me and despair, huh? Well, it's very flattering that you all love me. I really don't want you to despair, though," he said, giving Kirihara an innocent look.

"Sure you don't," Kirihara said sarcastically, and Yukimura laughed.

Niou laughed as well, and turned to Kirihara. "But if the Captain really had that thing wouldn't he... I don't know, not have gotten ill?" he asked.

"A very clever distraction so that we wouldn't suspect anything," Kirihara explained immediately.

"You think the Captain would actually do something that meant not playing tennis for a long time just to distract us?" Niou asked incredulously.

Kirihara frowned in Niou's direction, realising that a very important hole in his logic had been spotted. But then he shrugged, and turned back to Yukimura. "I'm not going to let my guard down around you anymore anyway, Captain!" he declared cheerfully. "Now that you know that I'm on to you, I might be in danger. If I'm not careful I might wake up one night and discover that you've sent Marui-sempai to eat my brain or something."

Marui looked up from his History book. "Heey, don't drag me into this," he said. "I wouldn't want to eat your brain anyway. I bet it would give me hallucinations or something."

"My brain is not a hallucinogenic!" Kirihara protested indignantly.

Marui shrugged. "Even if it isn't, I bet it's so polluted by your evil thoughts anyway that it'd give me indigestion at least." He paused, and turned to Yukimura. "Captain, I'd like to request that you never ask me to eat Akaya's brain."

Yukimura grinned at Marui. "We won't make the hungry team-member eat anyone's brainses, no we won't, preciousss," he said.

"Hah," Marui said, popping a bubble of his gum and sticking his tongue out at Kirihara.

"We will make Jackal do it instead, we will," Yukimura continued, making Jackal look up with a startled look on his face.

Yukimura laughed to himself and turned his attention back to the magazine. The voices of his team-mates continuing to bicker back an forth between them soon faded into the background, as did the noises from the television - Kirihara had already grown bored of the conversation and returned to watching the movie.

The magazine had an article on grip tape, which he read with one eye while keeping the other one on the window. He had bought some new tape himself only yesterday but hadn't had time to test it out yet. Morning practise had been busy, and he went through it once more in his mind.

Tomorrow, if it didn't rain, he'd get to play tennis again.