Freya: first InuxKai for (you guessed it) my beloved. She has read and approved this, and I hope you good InuKai-shippers will too. They belong to the world, Inui and Kaidoh, so I don't have the right to claim them. Enjoy.
Elements
An Inu x Kai oneshot by Freya Kurenai
Silence is this carefully unobtrusive thing between them, huge and yet so very frail at their fingertips.
They're both silent by nature, and yet so loud despite their attempts. More so for the young kohai, since it would not be foolishness to imagine him stand in the way the fire would crackle as it burned.
Little by little, the small tips of which could send you backing away.
Sadaharu Inui was loud in the way rivers and lakes were loud; sometimes it was a good thing, sometimes it was bad thing, the way his presence sent forth waves. Silence was their friend, their ally, their constant companion in their unexpectedly successful pair.
One would wonder if a love triangle was going on. Between Sadaharu Inui and Kaoru Kaidoh, silence was their comrade, and the only thing standing between what would have been a spectacular confession.
It sucked to be the third wheel sometimes.
"Ne, Oishi," Kikumaru would ask from time to time as they watched the two," why are they so quiet? It's gonna affect their play if they don't communicate." Oishi would simply smile, closer to the truth than he thought.
"Sometimes words get in their way of speaking to each other."
On the other side of the court, Inui hands Kaidoh a towel and the junior pats the spot beside him on the bench.
All this is done in silence.
It was rare that the newly formed Doubles pair of Seigaku would argue, and when they did, it was a messy, ugly, monstrosity of an argument. Tezuka almost wishes that they argue more, if only to lessen the impact.
They were in war now, and no one knew for sure why they were in one in the first place. It started (almost inconspicuously) yesterday before practice ended. Kaidoh had left Inui alone in the locker room and had gone on with his training. Only Tezuka notice the somewhat (bruish) way the junior went about his menu, and his worst fears were confirmed when the next morning (this morning) the pair did not even acknowledge each other.
He would've been stupid to expect this cold-shoulder attitude as the worst, and when they were set up for a practice match against Fuji and Eiji, all hell broke loose. Fuji could only smile wanly at him as the two regulars yelled and came very close to throwing their rackets at each other and all this could not even divulge even the smallest bit of information on the cause of the war.
Finally, it seemed as if they had exhausted their artillery. Suddenly, Inui sighed. At the same time, Echizen stalked towards them with a very annoyed expression on his face.
"Kaidoh-sempai, if Inui-sempai-" cut off by a tennis ball to the head. Tezuka would claim this day as the oddest day he'd ever witness on Seigaku grounds, after he ordered Momo to carry the unconscious prodigy/rookie to the nurse's office. He seemed to have stopped the war, as both Inui and Kaidoh were in better moods after that.
"It seems that keeping Echizen quiet about something convinced them to call it a truce." Fuji commented as the pair ran 40 laps around the courts. (Tezuka would not accept their lack of excuse- the good, rational kind, not 'it slipped'- and thus punished them accordingly.)
Tezuka nodded. "…did you happen to guess what was it that Echizen was going to say?" he asked cautiously (because he wasn't too sure if he wanted to know).
Fuji smiled.
"I quote, 'Kaidoh-sempai, if Inui-sempai wants to grope you in the locker room, just let him. You can punish him later with that bandana of yours.'" Tezuka wanted to extend their laps, if not for the fact that he could fully sympathize with Inui on his note.
He wishes they didn't have arguments at all.
One thing the Inui-Kaidoh pair had going for each other, Taka-san was wont to think, was the enormous amount of respect they had for each other.
He saw it in the way they walked, not too ahead or not too behind the other, just at the right pace so that if they had anything to say to each other, they would easily catch it. He saw it in the way they talked, honorifics aside, they never seemed to be in a rush, but as if in a constant state of calm (except in a tight spot, of course but even then). Taka-san could see it in the way Kaidoh so easily took Inui's criticisms and advice, and in the way Inui would take Kaidoh's questions and comments in much the same vein.
They respected each other, Taka-san thinks in all aspects.
Skills, character, personal traits. That personal trait- respect he could see all too easily. Kaidoh allowed himself to be urged, and Inui was careful in this event, making up for all that control (he is unsure as to how he makes up for it, Fujiko must know, he suddenly thinks). And from what Taka-san could see, Inui must enjoy the way Kaidoh regularly defied hs data, if that small smile (it grows bigger, Taka-san observes) was an indication.
They were equals, in their eyes and unsteadily so in others. They didn't care about anyone else when they were together, as if the world had suddenly narrowed down to just themselves. Taka-san sees their respect towards each other when they shake hands after a match, though Taka-san sees more than respect in their eyes.
Those were the times when their hands stayed with each other for an extra moment, an extra second, and when their eyes met, Taka-san is sure that respect wasn't the only thing that kept their Doubles 2 together.
They depended on each other, Momoshiro suddenly thinks. They depended on each other a lot.
Inui must depend on Kaidoh to hold himself down, depend on him to swallow his (insanely big) pride for the moment so that Inui could gather his much needed data. And that took a lot of trust, as goes the Double Pair rule of gold. Huh. And Kaidoh trusted Inui to be able to back him up and watch him train and gave him real facts on his training- a lot of things.
Their Doubles 2 was truly something else. Not that he'd admit it to their faces. Trust Inui to back Kaidoh up, and vice versa, when an insult was bandied about. It would be scary to chaw the ire of such a pair. One could kill you with poison from his fangs (it would be hard to go up against the Boomerang Snake when Kaidoh was mad- with his sempai to back him up, even more so), and the others with poison plain and simple.
They would have to trust each other on some inane level to pull off their combination, and maybe trust was just part of it. If Momoshiro had followed Ryoma's gaze later that day after practice he would've seen. There, just behind the locker rooms, were Inui and Kaidoh, fresh from their loss against the Golden Pair (6-7) standing across each other. Inui raises a hand and Kaidoh turns to the side, and a chuckle from the older regular makes him look back again. Seconds later, Kaidoh takes a step forward, and another, and another, until he could comfortably rest his head on Inui's shoulder while Inui rubs his back reassuringly. Ryoma doesn't catch their words as Momo drags him away, if he did however, he would've heard:
"...I depend on you too much."
"...as do I. Totally against my data."
"Hn."
Silence, arguments, respect and trust were useless things when they were made to stand alone. Together, though, they were the elements that made up the bond that held Sadaharu Inui and Kaoru Kaidoh together.
And this bond, unlike the elements that made it, was truly unbreakable.
Fin
"...with thoughts too deep to be expressed...
...and too strong to be suppressed..."
(come the inevitable presence of love)
Freya: (bows) hope you enjoyed that.