Title: On A Series Of Circumstances
By: AtobeLover
Summary: Ryoma and Horio's relationship through various themes. No flames.
Rated: T
Disclaimer: I have no intention of owning the series. I don't own it.
A/N: This is the 100 Themes challenge I took up just for the heck of it, but I really love it. And I might update slowly. 25 per chapter. And seeing as I might go on a long break REAL soon (RL hates me), please don't expect quick updates... but be happy if I update quick, and review, please. Don't flame. It's not crack. It's serious. And I don't want to listen to "omg lolwut horio cant be wit Ryo-sexy comm onnn you kidding jeez lulz" okay? Review if you like it.
Dedicated to: Kentastic72 and sopitaXXmor
Some drabbles are connected, some aren't. It's easy enough to figure out, I think.
1. Introduction
"Hello, Echizen. I'm Horio Satoshi. A freshman and a first-year in the tennis club, like you." Horio sticks out a hand in a grand gesture and fully expects Echizen to fall to his feet in awe. He is promptly disappointed when Ryoma just raises a doubting eyebrow, hums, and walks away with a mild "Mada mada dane", adjusting his white Fila cap. Katsuo and Kachiro are anxiously looking at him, trying to figure out what just happened.
Horio, on his part, is just speechless.
He's not going to forget this anytime soon.
2. Love
It isn't how Horio had expected his first love (confession) to be. No roses, no drenching rain, no violins in the background, playing a soft romantic tune. It's just lunch period being spent at the terrace, and Ryoma, lying there, is looking up at him with an amused smile on his face which makes Horio realize that he is about to screw it up in the next five minutes.
"I love you," he stammers, standing at Ryoma's feet. No experience here. His mouth isn't running off, for once. But his brain is. And his brain is telling him to turn around and walk out and pretend he's just bloody amazing and that nothing happened for the next twenty-five years, but it's all dashed down when Ryoma extends a hand and pulls him down, next to him, and kisses him softly, giving him a lazy smile after Horio's lips are all red and swollen and shiny.
3. Light
There is no electricity being supplied to any house in Ryoma's neighborhood because of the bastards striking in the industry and so Rinko dusts off the scented candles she had bought a decade ago, and, strategically placing them all over the house, starts lighting them.
It's only when she opens Ryoma's door to offer him a fragrant, and lit, candle that she finds Ryoma furiously kissing Satoshi (that nice boy who's Ryoma's best friend… well, not best friend, not anymore). The yellow-orange light illuminates Ryoma's tongue entwining with Satoshi's quite nicely, and Rinko's just slightly upset Ryoma never told her about a boyfriend (it doesn't really matter if he's gay or not), as she sets the candle down on a level surface and closes the door.
Ryoma doesn't even notice.
4. Dark
"Um, Ryoma, your mother just saw us…" Horio breathes out, paralyzed with shock. Ryoma looks annoyed at that, poking at Horio's arm, trying to make him move. "It doesn't matter," Ryoma whispers. "She didn't say anything, did she? Just walked out. Now stop being a statue and kiss me again."
Horio looks at him with those wide, innocent eyes of his, and says, "But what if you get in trouble because of me? I mean, she wouldn't really want her son to be with a boy, much less kissing him in the dark."
Ryoma feels a rush of affection he's never felt for anyone before, and says, "You talk too much." He stands up, and going over to the candle, blows it out.
5. Seeking Solace
Ryoma's in tears, and Horio doesn't know what to do. He stands there, awkwardly, watching tears roll down Ryoma's face and feeling knives paring the edges of his heart. It's rare, him dumbstruck like this.
"Don't get so torn up over a tennis match," he offers weakly, but Ryoma looks up with a disgusted frown and Horio doesn't really like the way he feels about two inches tall right now.
"It was my life out there," Ryoma gasps raggedly. "I gave it my everything for the first fucking time in my life and I lost." Horio just looks at him, desperately wishing he could help, but then Ryoma effectively cuts through him. "What would you know, anyway; you just watch like a loser from the sidelines." He gets up from the bench and walks away.
Horio wonders who will comfort him.
6. Break Away
It's like their relationship was bound to end. Horio overcompensates for his loss by making a regular fool out of himself at the tennis courts. People laugh at him and he doesn't care; but he sees Ryoma smirking at him amongst everyone else and somehow Horio's eyes fill with tears. Ryoma's smirk falters, and he turns away.
You don't end a relationship by just pretending he's not alive the next day.
But then, as Ryoma leaves for America, Horio thinks maybe Ryoma wanted to spare him the extra grief.
He misses the long, hard look Ryoma gives the back of his head as he tries to leave with at least a shred of his dignity.
7. Heaven
Angels, is Ryoma's first thought when he wakes up. This is heaven.
No, he's not dead, and the white he's seeing is simply a blanket and the velvet touches are Horio's hands. Ryoma sighs and reaches out to entwine their fingers together, and Horio says, "Maybe next time you'll listen carefully to what I'm saying and not goad Akutsu into getting violent anymore."
Ryoma nods, ignoring the stab of pain at the back of his neck. Anything to keep Horio's hands where they are. One holding his own, and the other stroking his forehead in uncharacteristic consideration.
8. Innocence
Ryoma can't get over the sheer surprise he gets every day when he talks to Horio. How can someone be so… unaware?
Horio brags about all the times he's gone biking with his cousin Junpei, and the bolt-in-the-blue day when Tezuka-buchou ("my hero"—Ryoma hadn't yet made that big an impression on Horio) taught him the literal basics of tennis.
Ryoma listens, because he's out looking for a laugh after a bleak and tiring practice and Horio's surroundings are the place to begin with; then he realizes that Horio blindly trusts everyone to listen. As Horio goes on about his extensive knowledge about tennis, Ryoma watches and understands that Horio does not know anything about the dark side of the allegorical coin.
9. Drive
Momo takes every willing regular out for a ride in his sister's brand new car, and Ryoma tags along because he has nothing better to do. As Eiji glues himself to Ryoma, the short tennis prodigy looks out of the window. Kaidoh is hissing at every turn Momo manages to fuck up, and Oishi has the first-aid box ready in his hands.
Ryoma's eyes fall on a boy and a lady walking on the pedestrian walkway. It's Horio. Chatting unstoppably with his mother, who looks exhausted and desperate, but also loving and kind and patient. Ryoma spots things a mile away.
A small smile forms on his face as he looks at Horio until he can't anymore.
10. Breathe Again
Ryoma's life is empty. Suffocating. Tennis commands his waking hours and nightmares preside over his nights. He wakes up screaming everyday, dreaming about things he can't remember when he opens his tear-filled eyes.
Rinko takes him to therapists who promised to do something about these nightmares, because Ryoma just doesn't look all that pretty with purple bags under his eyes and too-pale skin.
Somehow, it all stops the day Horio slept over. Ryoma's very picky in his choice of friends, and Horio's probably the second or third person to see the inside of his bedroom.
In the middle of the night, Horio wakes up to see Ryoma's face looming over him. There are tears on his cheek, and Horio is worried and wide-awake, immediately. "What's wrong?" he asks, sitting up. Ryoma mumbles, "Nightmare," and nudges Horio aside on his bed. Horio moves, confused about Ryoma's actions. But not so confused when Ryoma curls himself around him and nods off.
He didn't have a nightmare ever again.
11. Memory
Horio doesn't seem to remember Ryoma's existence after Ryoma comes back from America, and maybe Ryoma really fucked up in trying to get a clean break from him. He keeps staring at Horio who seems absofuckinglutely fine without him, until Oishi lays a soft hand on Ryoma's shoulder and steers him away.
Horio's eyes are always full of tears; because there is no way that he can forgive Ryoma.
But he does, at least when Ryoma confronts him about it and asks him for forgiveness. He doesn't know if he can trust Ryoma again or not. But he gives him a second chance, and allows all his memories of Ryoma to return.
12. Insanity
"You are crazy if you think this will work," Horio hisses at Ryoma, who just leans forward and licks Horio's lips dirtily.
"Well, I guess I am," Ryoma drawls. "Mada mada dane."
Horio hooks an arm around Ryoma's neck, comes so close to Ryoma that he, in a complete out-of-focus moment, can see their eyelashes entwining. Then they're kissing, right in front of court A, right in front of the regulars and Coach Ryuzaki and Tomoka and Sakuno.
Tezuka steps up to the two, and Horio involuntarily flinches. "On behalf of all of the spectators to your little… PDA, please… get a room."
Ryoma breaks away from the kiss and gives out a laugh, which makes Horio smile so brightly that Ryoma kisses his forehead and drags him away. It's not really their fault if all of Ryoma's fans go nuts with jealousy and despair the next day.
13. Misfortune
So Horio fails his English test. He completely blames it on Ryoma who wouldn't stay away from Horio's lips (does he have a fetish or something?) for even a minute, not allowing him to remember all the different figures of speech and stuff that he just knew would come in the test tomorrow.
He doesn't know whether it is bad or good luck that Ryoma's just as exemplary in English as Horio is in bragging.
He just wants to know whether Ryoma can keep his hands and tongue away from him while tutoring him.
14. Smile
It was Horio's smile that first got Ryoma's attention. Horio doesn't really smile, just keeps talking in that irritating way of his that makes people want to avoid him so badly. So when Horio comes up to him and introduces himself with a smile that lights up Ryoma's day, he can't complain.
He watches Horio's smile freeze up when he nonchalantly walks away, and smiles a smile of his own.
15. Silence
"Hello?"
No reply. Horio hangs up, and redials. "Ryoma, are you there?"
He hears a vague "don't call me that" before it's cut off and there's nothing he can hear anymore. Horio speaks into the phone. "Are you playing a prank on me?"
Faint smirks. Horio catches on. He hangs up again, but doesn't redial. After ten minutes the phone rings and Horio picks it up, but doesn't say anything.
"Hello? Satoshi?"
Silence. Horio gives out a smirk of his own as Ryoma becomes slightly pissy. "Stop that. Stop ignoring me."
Horio sits back and lets Ryoma talk.
16. Questioning
Ryoma's not someone to feel insecure about anything. But even he does a double take when he sees Horio holding hands with a girl their age, and smiling the smile he gives—gave—only Ryoma. He wants to believe it's a sister. Or a cousin. Or someone related to him or already taken.
He doesn't know how to stalk people, but he does a pretty good job of following Horio around.
So when Horio goes still when Ryoma comes up to him after he drops the girl off at her house, he completely deserves all that's coming to him.
"Who was that?" Ryoma asks softly; coldly. Horio is speechless, and he can't move. Ryoma can't stop the hurt from filtering through his next question.
"Why did you kiss her?"
17. Blood
Ryoma isn't used to wearing long sleeved shirts. He always gets hot and sweaty in those. But he has no choice because if Tezuka saw the cuts, he would be banned from tennis practice until they healed.
Or maybe he's going to get banned, anyway. He can't hold up a racquet; it hurts too badly.
It hadn't hurt when he had carved lines into his skin, though. Why now?
Apparently he's moved his hand too much for the day, because he can see red stains on the inside of his sleeves, soaking through. He runs away from the courts, and doesn't see Horio's heartbroken glance at him from behind the chain-link fence.
18. Rainbow
Horio always waits around for the rain to end, because he wants to see the rainbow. Every time. He does this every time.
One day Ryoma watches it with him, and Horio decides he'd rather look at Ryoma looking at the rainbow.
19. Gray
When you mix black with white, you get gray. Gray is a dull color, Ryoma thinks. No character of its own. He really hates it when Nanako has to bully him into a gray shirt and black blazer—blazer, for Kami-sama's sake—for the winter formal.
It's raining when he gets to the school, and even the clouds are gray. Ryoma inwardly curses his luck.
The tennis regulars are huddled in a corner of the gym, and Ryoma joins them, slightly drenched. Momo spots him and pulls him into a hug. "Hey, Ryoma," he says easily, "nice shirt."
Ryoma accidentally on purpose steps on his foot, because he knows Momo's just making fun of him. But he doesn't really know what to do or believe when Horio comes up to him and says, "That's a nice shirt. I like the color gray. It makes me think of my cousin's eyes. But her eyes are more of silver, if you get what I mean. You know, you wouldn't look half-bad if you had gray eyes. It's my favorite color, you know. I have many gray t-shirts."
Ryoma just takes his hand and puts it on his chest, right over his heart. Horio blushes slightly, feeling the beat.
"Maybe I like gray," Ryoma mumbles.
20. Fortitude
He's going to win all of the Grand Slams. He wants to. And even Aerosmith says dream on, dream until your dreams come true.
He just doesn't know how he'll get the strength to do it without Horio there.
He kneels by the grave and saturates the ground with his tears, and wishes Horio was still alive to fill Ryoma's empty heart with his never-ending stream of words and smiles.
21. Vacation
"Take a break, now. We've worked hard to win the Nationals. And I swear I'm exhausted," Oishi says, smiling down at all the regulars. Tezuka is sorely missed, but no one says a word.
Ryoma wants to leave Japan, at least temporarily. Now all that's left is prodding Horio into coming, too, but he knows Horio is a homebody.
So he just stays over at Horio's house and pretends it's a resort someplace unknown. Horio's willing enough to play along, but then it's his bed they use, and he knows they can't shift his bed to the Bahamas.
22. Mother Nature
Ryoma hates greenery. The type where his clothes get ripped and torn and dirty and useless because he doesn't have much of a green thumb.
But when Horio shows him a blooming rosebud with an even more beautiful smile on his face, Ryoma tries to rethink his decision to hate nature.
He didn't know Horio had Sakura trees growing in his backyard. He stands under them and lets the petals caress him and remind him of Satoshi.
23. Cat
Horio doesn't understand Ryoma's obsession with Karupin.
And then he finds out he's allergic to cats when Ryoma offers a wiggling Karupin to him.
Once he gets over the sneezing and coughing and teary eyes and snot-filled nose, he tells Ryoma to keep Karupin away from him. Ryoma's not going to listen, or even shoo Karupin away. Horio threatens him with some cousin who's had two years of experience in something related to cats (that's what he tells Ryoma; actually, cousin Haruko is a zoologist), and so Ryoma hastily pushes Karupin out of the room.
24. No Time
The Nationals are coming up. Immediately after the event, Ryoma is moving back to America.
It's exceedingly painful. In the way Horio can lick at his wounds all he wants but they won't stop bleeding. He is running out of time, and he has no idea when he'll tell Ryoma about his true feelings towards him. All this time, Ryoma has only perceived him as an annoying outsider, a braggart with free time on his hands—oh, the irony.
"Can I talk to you alone, Ryoma-kun?"
"Hm," Ryoma says, uncaring. He walks over to a secluded spot where no one can see them. Not even Fuji. Horio follows, and shies away somewhat when Ryoma looks at him. "What did you want to say? I've got practice, and the Nationals are coming, and I have to go home and pack, too. Be quick. Mada mada dane."
Horio can't stop his eyes from filling up at the mention of those things, and Ryoma's eyes widen. "Are you okay?"
Horio just bites his lip in an effort to stop the tears from actually falling, because this is his first love he's giving up. The kind of love that he will never find anywhere else. "Don't go," he chokes out. He is too selfish, and it's no use, the moment for holding him back passed a long while ago. "I love you. Don't leave me."
Ryoma places a hand on his neck, just underneath his jaw. Horio looks up. Ryoma leans in and kisses him gently touching his lips with his mouth. His tongue slips out to brush against Horio's bottom lip and Horio draws in a breath, mouth opening in shock. And then Ryoma's tongue is licking at Horio's, and they're kissing the way Horio's never kissed anyone before.
He thinks he's dreaming, but he sees tears in Ryoma's eyes as well as they pull away and Ryoma hugs him tightly.
25. Trouble Lurking
"Fuji and Momo are here," Ryoma whispers to Horio. "Pretend I'm tutoring you in English. Don't even mention the word date in front of them, or else—"
"I know," Horio says earnestly. Then as Fuji and Momo come nearer, he says in English, "I'd like some coffee. Ryoma, would you order some coffee for me, please?"
Momo looks awestruck, as he sits at the next table. Ryoma smirks to himself. "Of course," he replies, in that American accent that Horio gets so bothered about. He gets the attention of a waitress and does what Horio asked him to do.
As Horio gets a coffee cream moustache, Ryoma smiles affectionately, and then goes still as Fuji coughs from beside him. "We know, O-chibi," he says with a smile.
"We won't tell anyone." Momo orders a cheeseburger for himself, and then digs into it. Ryoma relaxes, and his hand reaches out to touch Horio's.
To be continued - please review, though. And forgive me if I update slowly.