Disclaimer: I own very little.

A/N: A sequel to All Bark No Bite. :D

Of Boyfriends and Ruffled Hair

Dan had never complained about having to pick up balls and the like after the team was done with practice when he'd been a manager. However, he had to admit he much preferred actually going to the club room to change with the rest of the team. They all talked and laughed a lot, relaxed after the exercise they'd gone through. It was especially nice now that he was a player – and not only a player, but a regular. It wasn't much different from being the manager, yet they had nothing in common at all.

"Dan-kun!" An arm was suddenly draped over his shoulders. "What's this I hear about you?"

Dan blinked, looking up at the other boy. "I don't know, Sengoku-senpai desu. What did you hear?" Of course, he could make a few guesses, but Sengoku might mean something else entirely. He had a way of surprising you.

"You've been seen on a date." Sengoku's words drew the other regulars' attention to Dan as well. "How about it, Dan-kun? True or false? Do spill!"

"I may have spent time with a friend desu," Dan replied. "What makes you think it's a date?"

"Hmm." Sengoku adopted an obviously fake thinking expression. "How about the shared ice cream bowls?"

"I just wanted to taste theirs, and they returned the favour." Of course, this was not the entire truth, but the very first rule of being a data player – a successful data player, at least – was not giving data to others for free. Besides, Sengoku was fun to tease.

"I heard you paid for everything." Now Sengoku looked somewhat sly.

"They didn't have their wallet." Of course, the senpai didn't have to know Dan had told his date to leave it home.

"And the kisses?" …Okay, so that wasn't so easy to explain in a non-date way.

"What?" The others crowded closer. "Little Dan had an actual date? With whom? Where?"

"I'm curious, too, Dan-chan," Sengoku said with a grin. "I didn't see it for myself, and my source was stingy with details." Like that wasn't enough detail? "So, a girl? A guy? Age? School? Do spill!"

Dan smiled a bit. "You seem to know everything else well enough," he said. "Why don't you just make a guess? I promise I'll even tell you if you get it right desu. And I won't lie!"

"A guy," Muromachi said immediately. "Sorry, Dan-kun, but I just can't imagine you with a girl no matter what."

"You would be correct desu," Dan said cheerfully.

"Not much of a surprise, no." Sengoku snorted. "As for school… I'm going to take a lucky guess and say Seigaku, just because."

Dan cocked his head to the side. "You always were lucky, eh, Sengoku-senpai."

"I knew it!" Sengoku ruffled the smaller boy's hair. "So, who is it?"

"Why don't you go ask at Seigaku?" Dan suggested innocently. "I'm sure they know well enough around there."

Kita made a face. "And what if your mysterious boyfriend is as secretive about it as you are?"

None of them could quite understand just why Dan burst into laughter.

"Of course, no one could resist my endless manly charms." The loud voice carried to the other end of the courts. "One look at me and he couldn't even think of anything else! Of course, with my experience of dating –"

"My, my, this sounds quite interesting," Fuji said, an infinite smile on his lips as he walked closer to the freshman trio. "What is going on here, may I ask?"

"Ah, Fuji-senpai," Katsuo said. "Horio-kun's just telling us about his boyfriend." His voice sounded somewhat strained – he'd likely been listening to this for a while already.

"Really, now?" Fuji's smile widened a bit. "Horio's boyfriend, who would have thought? And here I was thinking he was doomed to die a virgin."

"Fuji-senpai!" Horio protested loudly, a flush on his face. Katsuo and Kachirou simply looked shocked.

"Eh?" Momo stepped closer as well, a look of interest on his face. "What's this? Someone's actually willing to put up with Horio? Who's mad enough to do that?"

"He's yet to tell us," Kachirou sighed. "We've only heard several times his boyfriend is a regular player and awesome in tennis even if he was overwhelmed with Horio's skill." The tone of his voice wasn't exactly full of trust for his friend's trustworthiness on this matter.

Now, Momo grinned. "Dan-kun, eh? Was this before or after the part where you got utterly and completely beaten by him in tennis?"

"Dan-kun?" echoed Katsuo and Kachirou, eyes wide, even as Horio sent another flustered gaze Momo's way. "What? How?"

"Hey, now," Horio muttered sullenly. "Is it that unbelievable someone would like me?"

"Not at all, not at all." Momo ruffled his hair affectionately. "You're infinitely better boyfriend material than, say, Karupin."

"Is there something wrong with my cat?" a cool voice asked behind them.

"Only as far as boyfriends are concerned," Momo said with a grin, turning towards Echizen. "But will you believe it? Yamabuki's apparently got an insane regular, too!"

"What do you mean, too?" Fuji smirked. "Which one of our regulars is less than sane, then?"

Momo looked quite flustered, only to be saved from answering as Oishi finally arrived on the courts and announced the beginning of practice. However, this definitely didn't keep him from teasing Horio about his relationship at every opportunity.

About halfway through his match against Eiji, Inui suddenly froze, looking towards the bushes beside the court. "…You can just come out now, you know," he said calmly.

A somewhat embarrassed grin on his face, Sengoku stood up from the bushes, a few of the other Yamabuki regulars following. "Oh, hi, Seigaku," he said cheerfully, walking to the courts. Apparently they decided hiding was useless after all.

"What's this?" Tezuka asked, his expression unwavering as ever. "I never expected Yamabuki to resort to such methods of spying."

"Ah, we're not exactly spying," Sengoku said, scratching the back of his head. "More like… say… gathering information?"

"Oh? Information on what?" Oishi blinked. It wasn't like they were doing anything special right now, and there weren't even tournaments coming up, so…

"Apparently, Dan-kun's dating someone on your team," Muromachi said. "And we want to know who it is so we can take action if needed."

"Eh?" The uninformed part of the team looked surprised, everyone gathering close to the Yamabuki "spies". Momo, however, merely grinned.

"Is that all, is that really all?" The spiky-haired boy grinned. "The person you're looking for is right here!" And, with this, he pointed at Horio.

Sengoku looked at Momo. Then he looked at Horio. Then, as if to ask whether the other boy was really sure, he looked again at Momo.

Then he started to laugh.

"Hey!" Horio huffed, insulted. "It's not that funny!"

"Sorry, sorry," Sengoku laughed. "It's just –" he chuckled. "It's just, I always knew data players were unpredictable, but the change in Dan-kun's taste is a bit too… abrupt." He grinned, not entirely kindly. "You aren't exactly similar to Akutsu, you know."

"A-Akutsu?" Somewhat surprisingly, Taka-san was the first one to comment. Or perhaps not so surprisingly.

"Yeah, that's right. You had competition and never knew." Sengoku's grin turned a bit friendlier as he ruffled Horio's hair. "Not to worry, though – looks like Dan-kun has found himself a new little crush."

"I'm not a 'little crush,'" Horio said with what could only be called a pout. A very childish one. "I'm his boyfriend!"

"Sure, sure." Muromachi grinned. "And we're his senpai, so keep in mind that if you ever as much as think of upsetting him, we'll have to make you miserable."

"And not only that," Sengoku continued. "I'm sure Akutsu would also like to know if anyone were foolish enough to hurt his least hated kouhai."

Now, instead of flushing, Horio paled visibly.

"Enough with the threats," Tezuka sighed. "Back to practice, everyone. Or was there anything else you wanted to know?" he then asked from the Yamabukians.

"Not anything in particular, no." Sengoku smiled. "Oh, and Horio-kun? Dan-kun asked us to tell you he'll come by after you're done with practice."

"And how exactly does he know when our practice ends?" asked Momo, only to blink as Sengoku grinned and mimicked writing in a notebook. "Oh, yeah. Data. Forgot about that."

"Practice times are one of the very basic bits of data to be known about any rival team," Inui said, adjusting his glasses. "I would be quite surprised if Dan-kun wasn't aware of our average schedule."

"Right." Sengoku winked. "Well, we'll leave you to it, then!" And, with another grin, he started leading his players out of the Seigaku courts.

The Seigaku regulars looked after him. Arai was, somewhat surprisingly, the first one to speak. "Horio's dating into that bunch? He's braver than I thought."

From this moment, Horio was somewhat mercilessly teased by everybody whenever the practice wasn't demanding all their attention. Even as they walked out of the clubhouse after practice, the first-year found himself surrounding by comments from his senpai. It would have been impossible for him to forget Dan was going to come – he was certainly reminded of it often enough.

"Oi! Horio-kun!" The cheerful voice made them all turn to look for its source. An apparently very cheerful boy stood by the edge of the courts, waving at Horio. With the white Yamabuki uniform and blue hair, he was fairly easy to recognize.

"Ah, sorry, senpai," Horio said, appearing somewhat flustered at their continuous teasing. "Looks like I have to go!" And, shouldering his bag, he hurried towards the boy waiting for him, running as though afraid someone would follow him.

As soon as Horio reached his side, Dan grasped his hand. Then, in front of several wide pairs of senpai eyes, he drew the taller boy into a kiss.

Fuji, as was to be expected, smiled. "Eheh. Looks like someone has finally discovered a way of shutting Horio-kun's mouth for a moment."

"I don't think anyone's going to imitate him any time soon, though." Echizen tugged his cap lower.

"Horio-kun?" Dan glanced at his boyfriend. "Is something wrong? You seem somewhat pale desu."

"Your senpai-tachi threatened me," Horio sighed. "They said that if I hurt you, they'll make me miserable."

"Really?" Dan smiled a bit. He didn't seem all that surprised.

"Really! And – and they also said Akutsu would be mad, too!" Horio turned to look at Dan, worry in his eyes. "Would he?"

"Why do you ask?" Dan blinked innocently. "Were you planning to hurt me?"

"Of course not!" blurted Horio. "Just… He hurt Kachirou for no reason other than just being there. He'd probably do the same to me if he even thought the idea had crossed my mind!"

"Aw, don't worry, Horio-kun." Dan squeezed his hand. "I'll tell Akutsu-senpai not to even dream of it."

To say that Horio looked relieved would have been a vast understatement.

"Oh, and Horio-kun?" As the other gave him a questioning glance, he continued, "The chances that my senpai-tachi are currently stalking us are over ninety percent."

Horio sighed. He should have known, really. Senpais and their stalking... "And what about mine?"

Dan just smiled, that small little smile that told he knew something you didn't and would gladly share it except you probably didn't want to know it anyway.

Horio didn't question any further.