Disclaimer: I own very little.

A/N: This is an entry to the rikkai-shorts fic exchange at LiveJournal, the recipient being release. This is the only approach I found to these two, which might tell something about either them or me...

Of the Similarity of Sadistic Souls

Niou was, more often than not, called the most tricky person in all of Rikkai. Niou himself quite agreed with this -- most of the time, anyway. While Yagyuu could be tricky enough if need be -- like whenever they were switched -- he still could do nothing Niou hadn't taught him. He also was probably the best at scheming, although their oh-so-frightening strategist did come close, too.

However, when it came to the attribute so many of the Rikkai players were known for -- absolute disregard of their opponents to the point of cruelty -- he had to admit defeat to the captain.

Yukimura certainly didn't look like it. He was kind and gentle and friendly, and he smiled all the time in a way that would have effortlessly made mothers trust their newborn children to him. They would have been safe to do so, too, as for the most part Yukimura was indeed what he appeared to be. However, at certain times he would show another side of his, his words stinging worse than any ball Niou could shoot at his opponent. Nothing diminished the triumph of victory better than being calmly told your form had been absolutely awful.

Niou knew well that his team mates knew of Yukimura's true nature to very varying degrees. Yanagi was probably well aware of his friend's sometimes rather cruel inclinations, while Sanada most likely thought Yukimura was indeed the nice and gentle person he appeared to be. True enough, whenever Yukimura said something nasty, he always covered it with a smile and a chuckle, making it appear to be a joke, or perhaps just an innocent comment not meant to hurt at all. Everybody in the team had got used to these little stabs, and they bore them with no resentment, each knowing that it was just how their captain was.

Those few who knew that Yukimura deliberately clung to his kind appearance to get away with his occasional nastiness knew it wouldn't be any use to be insulted.

Niou had been watching. He was himself often called nasty, and indeed, he spared none from his sharp words, aside from the two who could assign him laps. Often he took pride in this title more than anything. However, as he observed Yukimura, he came to the startling realization that he was a mere child in the art of nastiness when compared with his captain.

Take Sanada, for example. The poor boy was absolutely smitten with the captain; anybody could see it. Niou knew it was a wide-spread rumour even in other schools that Sanada and Yukimura were lovers. However, this was mistaken information. While Sanada most probably would have liked nothing better, Yukimura never let it go that far. The captain was always smiling at Sanada, complimenting him occasionally, touching him more than necessary, never letting him down though he definitely knew of the other's feelings -- yet he never let it go any further than that. And why would he have? After all, he felt nothing for the other aside from friendship.

When Niou confronted the captain about this -- after thinking about it long and hard, well knowing it might result with getting kicked out of the team -- he had simply received a politely confused smile from Yukimura, along with an assurance that this was not done in cruelty, at all. Yukimura simply couldn't stand seeing his friend hurt, and he thus played along without ever going any further, hoping that Sanada's feelings would fade over time. While this was probably partly true -- after all, receiving pleasure from being occasionally sadistic certainly didn't prevent you from having human feelings, as Niou well knew -- Niou was convinced at least part of the reason was Yukimura's definite enjoyment at seeing the usually so stoic and unshakable Sanada so readily in his proverbial leash.

The vice-captain would have done anything -- indeed, Niou would not have put even criminal activities past him on a good day -- the captain asked of him. Yukimura would smile at him, speaking softly, and then comment sharply about how his loss to Echizen had indeed been one of the most miserable ones in the history of Rikkai and how he should be ashamed of it, really, dear Genichiroh. And Sanada would nod and agree and swallow it all, not even feeling insulted but merely gently reproached.

Niou wasn't sure exactly how Yukimura did it. However, he was extremely sure he admired this skill.

Slowly, his observation of the captain grew almost to obsession. He made sure never to let Sanada notice it -- after all, although curious, he wasn't suicidal -- as while otherwise occasionally bordering on dense, the vice-captain was almost frighteningly sharp in anything concerning Yukimura. Anything that didn't have anything to do with the captain's true feelings for him, at least -- unless he was a world championship in the fine art of denial. Nevertheless, Niou kept watching, and learning.

Niou's own cruelty was, understandably, of a much more visible kind. He never tried to hide it when he was nasty, but from Yukimura, he still learnt new ways to hurt others. It was fascinating, really, how the right word at the right moment could hurt somebody worse than any physical strike ever. It was a skill he had yet to hone to perfection, but at least he was very eagerly working on it.

Yukimura, of course, took notice at this -- and responded in his usual way. "You sure are working hard to become like me, Niou," he commented casually one day after practice, still within the sight of others but not in their hearing range. "I guess you have finally realized just how worthless your own nasty habits are. You're such a cruel thing, aren't you?"

Afterwards Niou would never realize just what had driven him at that particular moment -- momentary insanity, most probably -- but something certainly did, as words that should have never left his mouth did so. "Takes one to know one," he said, and froze in nigh terror the very next moment. He was obviously out of his mind, to say something like that to the captain.

Yukimura smiled, that brilliant, dazzling smile he usually gave you right before he assigned you an insane amount of laps, perhaps topped off with some push-ups. Most likely extra weights, too. Niou could only just keep himself from shivering in terror.

As Yukimura finally opened his mouth, though, it wasn't a punishment that came out -- not yet, anyway. "Indeed, it is so," the captain replied. "How clever of you to take notice, Niou." With this, he leant towards Niou and performed the act of ultimate cruelty.

Even as he felt Sanada's death glare at his back as Yukimura quickly disappeared after the light kiss, the other team members giving him stunned and pitying glances as they well knew what tortures would await him due to the vice-captain's wrath, Niou realized that he wouldn't perhaps entirely mind being subjected to some more of the captain's cruelty occasionally.

You should always strive to learn from the best, after all.