TITLE: Ain't It Fun
FANDOM: Prince of Tennis
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Prince of Tennis
SUMMARY: Being best friends with Fuji Syuusuke should really come with a warning label. Friendship!Fuji/OC
NOTES: This won't be anything too huge; it's just meant to be something fun.
.
It wasn't that Higuchi Masako was a socially awkward person; she wasn't. And it wasn't that she was a complete tomboy; Masako was actually very girly. But for some unknown reason, she just could not click with girls.
Oh, she was friendly with all of them, for sure, and it wasn't like she hadn't befriended any girls during her fourteen years of existence. She'd had to, because for some reason, co-ed groups of friends were quite rare at Seishun Gakuen. It was just that while Masako was more than welcome to join in with any group of girls for lunch and breaks, they never got along quite well enough to consider each other friends.
Which, Masako realized for the umpteenth time on a Sunday, sucked. Especially when the two girlfriends she had had moved out of the province. It sucked even more when she had to wait for her mom to come home from grocery shopping if she wanted to check out the new café down the block.
"I have to make actual girl friends," she told the star plushie on her bed. "Hoshi-chan, you're supposed to make wishes come true, right? Give me an actual girl friend who doesn't move to Okinawa or America."
Hoshi-chan, predictably, did absolutely nothing. Masako sighed before setting it back in its rightful place against her pillow collection and thumbing through her phone.
To: Kimura Noriko, Yamada Kazue
From: Higuchi Masako
If you guys don't come back to visit within the next year I am going to murder you.
It pinged with a response almost immediately.
To: Yamada Kazue, Higuchi Masako
From: Kimura Noriko
Come visit me in Okinawa instead! We have warm weather~
Masako briefly debated the pros and cons of city life and beaches. (She decided on the latter, but that may have been largely due to the gloom of winter slush.) She was about to type out a reply when she registered the date on her phone.
"Crap."
.
Fuji Syuusuke had been a constant fixture during Masako's time at Seishun Gakuen in that he had always been seated in front of her.
…And that was it, pretty much.
It wasn't like she had a huge crush on him like most of the girls in their class; she really didn't. If anything, Masako mused, her feelings towards Fuji Syuusuke resembled a girl crush more than anything. She found herself pausing almost every day to marvel at how silky and shiny his hair looked. During the past two years, she'd gone on a hunt to track down the hair products he used. This failed search had resulted in Masako spending obscene amounts of money on both drug store and high end products, much to her chagrin. She'd also spent the previous two years desperately trying to figure out how he could even see with his eyes closed all the time. She had failed at this even more spectacularly.
Despite her bizarre mix of apathy and curiosity when it came to Fuji Syuusuke, their two years of somewhat-close proximity made them somewhat-comfortable around each other. They greeted each other in the mornings, asked each other about certain points in class, casually discussed tests, etc.
This did not mean she was one for polite conversation when she was in the middle of the feminine products aisle at the drugstore. Fuji, on the other hand, seemed as serene as usual.
"Fuji-kun," Masako nodded stiffly, attempting to salvage her dignity.
"Higuchi-chan," he managed pleasantly.
Masako pointedly avoided eye contact as they simultaneously reached for the same box.
She leapt back. "Oh. Sorry. You can go ahead."
Fuji smiled brightly. "Thanks."
Masako watched as he nonchalantly placed it in his basket of items, along with a bar of chocolate and some pain medication.
She giggled. She couldn't help it. So what if laughing meant that he was more mature in awkward situations?
Her classmate looked at her… curiously? Masako couldn't say. "Are you okay, Higuchi-chan?"
"I'm sorry," she said, between chortles. "It's just–You really can't deny how awkward this situation is."
Fuji waited for her to calm down before handing her the other box on the shelf. "We can't all be as poised as you are, Higuchi-chan. You were handling the situation quite well until you started laughing hysterically."
The sight of Fuji Syuusuke holding a box of tampons out to her had Masako in stitches again.
He tutted playfully. "Really, Higuchi-chan. Your image as Seigaku's Empress is going down the drain."
That had Masako stop laughing. "Wait, what? Do I really have that image? Why?"
Fuji shrugged. "Maa. You do have perfect posture, and this certain," his voice took a teasing lilt, "je ne sais quoi to your air."
Masako preened. "Well," she sniffed. "I have ballet to thank for that."
Fuji smiled indulgently and waved the box of tampons around. "Would you like this, Higuchi-chan? I'm starting to feel strange holding it out to you for so long."
She perked up. "Oh, thanks!" she said, accepting it and carefully setting it into her basket next to her shampoo.
Which reminded her.
"Fuji-kun? Sorry if this sounds even more awkward, but could you show me what products you use for your hair? I've always wondered."
Luckily, he didn't seem to mind. "Sure. It's actually right over in the next aisle."
Masako inwardly cheered.
.
"Wasabi-scented shampoo?"
Fuji smiled and opened the cap to sniff the bottle. "Yes. It's actually quite pleasant."
Masako read the ingredients skeptically. "Doesn't it burn your eyes?"
"No more than any other shampoo. But it does give me shinier hair."
Masako immediately tossed her regular shampoo out of her basket.
.
Masako couldn't stop touching her hair.
"Hoshi-chan," she said to her plushie solemnly, "the shampoo that Fuji-kun told me to use is amazing. My hair has never been this silky smooth or shiny before."
She paused to flip her hair over her shoulder, just to feel it whoosh.
"I mean, its smell is kind of weird but my hair has never looked better, so I'm keeping it. I'll just spray perfume in it or something."
Masako gave herself another ten seconds to run her fingers through her hair before she officially crossed the line to 'vain as a peacock'.
"Hoshi-chan, I really wish you'd gotten the gender right for Fuji-kun. I could have been friends with a girl like him. I mean, who knew that we have the potential to click in a strictly friends kind of way? I'm actually pretty glad that I bumped into him in the…" she stopped and trailed off thoughtfully.
"Oh my god," she nearly shrieked, throwing her plushie in the air. "Fuji-kun's a girl."