AUTHOR: pseudonym
RATING: G
DISCLAIMER:
This story is based upon characters and situations created and owned by Maki Konami Takeshi. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A Trip to the Market
Inui/Oishi, canned asparagus
(1/2)

"Are you on your own again for dinner?" Oishi asked, wondering why Inui had asked him, of all the people on the team, to accompany him after practice that day.

Inui pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Sort of. Let's go." He seemed to be in some sort of rush as he practically ran through the market door, leaving a very confused Oishi to follow.

"What about fruit," Inui asked, not even bothering to pick up a basket. He whipped out a notepad and pen from his pocket, and stared at the fuku-buchou expectantly.

"What about it?" Oishi asked apprehensively. Inui shook his head, pen poised over the paper. Inui had always been a bit of an oddball, right from the first time they had met back in first year.

"Which is your favourite?" Inui asked, tilting his head so that the lights reflected off of his glasses giving him a creepy look… not that he wasn't already a little bit creepy to begin with.

Oishi only took a moment before responding. "Ahh… strawberries are the best." Though, he wondered whether or not he should be asking why the team manager wanted to know. Maybe he was thinking about a new diet regime or something.

The ex-member of the Seigaku regular team mumbled something about Eiji and thirty three percent before asking which fruits he wasn't fond of.

That was an easy question, and Oishi answered promptly with, "Plums and oranges."

And so the two Seigaku seniors made their way through the aisles with the team manager asking the same questions over and over regarding different foods.

It was when they reached the canned section that Oishi gave a visible shudder. "Can we skip this one," he requested, edging away from the corner so that the cans were out of sight.

"You can never have too much data," Inui muttered, a smirk twisting on his lips as he hurriedly flipped to a new page in his pad.

"What did you just say," Oishi really hadn't been paying much attention to his friend as the mere sight of the canned food aisle brought back a memory that made his stomach queasy just thinking about it.

"Ahh… I said that 'you can never have too much pasta.'"

"I didn't know that you liked American food." Now Oishi was a tad fearful. He could have sworn that his friend had said something about too much data. He shrugged it off, figuring that he had just been distracted by the thought of canned vegetables and misheard.

Inui gave him a long stare. "It's not American; it's Italian, and I don't."

Oh. Well, then. He was really confused now. At some point… probably within five minutes of having ever met the data-crazy boy, Oishi had failed to follow the collector's odd train of thought. That, coupled with a tiring practice, had left Oishi quite tired. "I think I should be going now. I'm really tired from all of those laps Tezuka made us run today; he wasn't in the greatest mood."

Inui nodded in agreement. "There's a ninety two percent chance that Tezuka is getting sick. Usually he sneezes zero point two five times a week and blows his nose zero point zero four times. However, for the past week, he has sneezed four point seven times and has blown his nose two point nine times daily.

Oishi only nodded. Inui's rather disturbing recollection of his data about being sick was making him feel nauseous.

Back in their first year, after him and Kikumaru had been friends for a few months, Oishi had really stressed himself out… to the point where he made himself sick. He had been ordered to bed rest for five days, and, as the dutiful and dedicated friend he was, Kikumaru had visited on a daily basis.

However, as good as his intentions were and as much as his heart was in the right place, those had turned out to be the longest five days in his life. Every day that Kikumaru had stopped by, it usually ended with some sort of catastrophe or another. The most memorable of Eiji disasters was his 'Kiku-chan's Special Soup'.

To make a long story short, Kikumaru, despite strict orders to stay out of the kitchen, had made a 'light broth' that consisted of just about every can of vegetable in the Oishi pantry. That would have been fine, except poor Eiji had no idea just how much Oishi hated asparagus, and canned asparagus at that. It is enough to say that he was out sick for a couple of extra days after eating the soup… and promptly throwing it back up. Ever since then, canned vegetables, especially asparagus had brought a wave of nausea even if he only thought about them.

"Are you alright?" Inui asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose again.

Oishi nodded in response, giving his stomach a reassuring rub. "Yeah, I'm fine. Did you need me for anything else?"

"What's your least favourite vegetable?" This time, there was a full blown smirk on Inui's lips and Oishi only managed to blurt out 'canned asparagus' before running to find the nearest bathroom.

...

A few shoppers turned to look at the manically laughing boy who was standing in the middle of the canned food aisle, clutching his pen in one hand and a can of asparagus in the other.