Anime:
Prince on Tennis
Pairing: Niou/Yagyuu
Rating: T
Dislaimer:
I do not own any of the characters in Prince of Tennis.
Niou closed his eyes again and readjusted his position on his bed. He had been trying to doze off for at least an hour, but he was still awake.
Insomnia.
He hated it so much. It happened to him almost every night. He felt tired and sleepy, but no matter how he tried to sleep, he just couldn't.
Niou had talked it out with Yagyuu, and he had recommended him to do a meditation.
Well, he made sense. It may work on most people, but not Niou. Meditation only made him dizzy. He couldn't stand the process of trying to empty your head off any thoughts—to him, it felt no different from insomnia.
Letting out an irritated sigh, Niou opened his eyes.
In the shallow darkness, he stared at the ceiling. He observed the shadows cast by the street lights.
Niou stared for a long, long time, until he felt like as if the shadows were moving.
It tired his eyes, but it didn't help him sleep.
The silver-haired teen sat up and kicked his blanket aside. He got pissed whenever this insomnia thing disturbed his sleeping time.
Stripping off his pajamas, he threw on a white T-shirt and dark shorts on himself, and took his mobile phone and wallet.
Quietly, Niou walked out of his room, down the stairs and reached his front door. Checking once again, he slowly opened the door, and walked out, locked it carefully, shoved the key into his pocket, and left his house.
Breathing in the night air of the early summer, Niou Masaharu strolled down the vacant and quiet street. It was definitely empty, for it was about two in the morning.
He walked passed a few closed shops, and when he reached a 24 hour convenient store, he slipped in.
The cashier looked tired and sleepy. He must have dozed off before Niou came in.
The trickster walked around the store and observed the things one by one. Some snacks were actually quite new to him, because during the day, he never really spends time observing them.
One of the stuffs caught his attention.
It was a lollipop shaped like a guy's erection.
That would be a perfect gift to annoy Yagyuu!
He couldn't help but to smirk and chuckled evilly to himself, imagining the look on Yagyuu's face when he saw the "gift".
Niou took it to the cashier and paid for it.
The once sleepy cashier was suddenly awake. He gave Niou a weird look. The trickster sensed it, but ignored him, paid for the candy and left the store smirking to himself.
Then he walked around a nearby park and he sat down on a bench when he felt his head aching.
Lack of sleep for the past few days had left him trails of disturbing illness such as headache, and frequent gastric attacks.
He shut his eyes for a moment, hoping that it would give some relief to his pain. It did help a little, but he could still felt the fierce throbbing inside his head.
Niou opened his eyes and stared blankly ahead. He didn't want to be bothered by the dull pain in his head. Weeks of come-and-go headaches had made him somehow immune to it. With the throbbing in his head, he could walk around the school like he was 100 percent healthy.
But Yagyuu had noticed it. The pain had affected Niou's tennis performance; and plus Yagyuu knew that his double partner had been living with insomnia.
He had also known that Niou often swallowed sleeping tablets; sometimes more than he was supposed to consume; but the silver haired lad had given up on pills because it didn't help him sleep; it kept him awake for another hour.
Niou sighed. He wanted to go back to his room and try to doze off, but he had always hated the TRY to sleep part of his night routine.
At worse nights, Niou would get so pissed at himself that he began injuring his arm, or leg. It went on for some time until he finally gave up on it too. It did nothing to calm himself.
The time was showing 2:38 in the morning, when Niou took out his mobile phone because it had vibrated in his pocket.
It was Yagyuu calling him.
"Yes, Mr. Gentleman?" Niou teased.
"You still awake," Yagyuu said, instead of asking.
"Well, since you call, I would be awake, even if I had been sleeping," Niou continued teasing, adding sarcasm to it.
"So, you weren't asleep," he said with no question mark.
Niou sighed softly, "No."
"Still tossing around the bed?"
Niou looked around the park and smirked, "Yes. Are you letting your imagination runs wild?"
"Don't speak such obscene things," Yagyuu said, in his usual serious tone.
"But you are imagining it, are you not?" Niou teased. "Me naked on my bed."
"No," came the short and cold reply from Yagyuu.
"And then, I'd called you in a husky voice to come over and…" Niou smirked widely.
"Stop it already!"
"Why? Are you getting hard?" Niou teased.
"Go home and get some sleep, Masaharu," Yagyuu spoke calmly.
Niou shut his eyes and smiled to himself. Yagyuu Hiroshi wasn't an idiot. He knew Niou too well.
"What?" Niou asked softly.
"Go home."
"And?"
"Get some sleep."
"Uh huh?"
"Masaharu."
Niou smiled again. He liked the way Yagyuu called him by his first name. There was a certain serenity in his voice that could calm the silver haired lad.
Of course, he had been too proud to tell Yagyuu about that. And perhaps, that's the only thing that Yagyuu hadn't figured out. At least, Niou has one last secret to keep from the older lad.
That night, Niou lied quietly on his bed for another hour, thinking about Yagyuu, before he drifted into a short, dreamless sleep.