Sanada got up from his mattress. Renji looked up from his sudoku. "Where are you going? Remember it's an early start tomorrow."
"Bathroom, I'll be right back."
Sanada left the room and Renji muttered, smirking: "Tell Akaya he can come here, if he wants to sleep."
Sanada hm'ed, a corner of his mouth curling up slightly. His room mate was definitely too observant. He walked quietly through the dimly lit hallway towards the far end of it.
A few steps into the hall, he stopped. Sanada heard quiet talking in one of the rooms; clearly he wasn't the only one still awake. Nioo and Yagyuu's room was dark, but the two boys were clearly still awake - talking, as usual. The vice-captain suppressed his want to walk into the room and tell the two to quiet down and get some sleep, after all he was still up himself.
Sanada shook his head, smiling again. The next room was also dark, but the voices in there were a lot louder... and more than a little suspicious. So he decided to peek in.
What he saw surprised him completely; Jackal was lying on his back on one of the mattresses and Marui was sitting on top of him, whacking him on the head with a pillow. But when Jackal suddenly grabbed his friend and turned them around to a very questionable position, Sanada quickly, but quietly, closed the door.
Who'd have thought, he mused as he continued his way to he last room. He knocked quietly and slid the door a little ajar. The room was dark, and first he thougth the two boys inside were sleeping, but then a warm hand touched his arm.
"I thought you wouldn't show up, Sanada", Yukimura whispered and pushed the other boy out of the room. "Let's not wake the baby."
Sanada turned to look at the bundle on the mattress; it mumbled something inaudible and turned on his back. Eyes closed, breathing calmly, you'd never believe how that boy played tennis. The captain slid the door practically shut, but knowing it made a horrible clacking sound when closing, he left it a little ajar.
"No, we don't want to wake the baby", Sanada answered gently. "So, how was your day, Seiichi?"
Yukimura smiled; he loved it when Sanada called him by his first name. He wrapped his arms around the other's shoulders and pulled him closer. "You should do that more often."
Sanada looked puzzled. "Do what?"
"Use my first name... it gives me the chills, the way you say it..." Yukimura whispered, closing his eyes and pressing his lips gently on the taller boy's.
Sanada pulled back a little and whispered: "Seiichi." Yukimura smiled and pulled the other boy into a hug and shivered. "Silly thing", he whispered and kissed the other boy again. Sanada leaned to the wall behind Yukimura as the shorter boy lifted his hand to caress Sanada's chin.
The door banged open and the boys jumped apart. Akaya was stading on the doorway, messy-haired and blurry eyed.
"Couldn't you two be doing that somewhere else?" the boy snapped at the two cuddling ones.
Sanada blushed getting caught like that, but Yukimura just smiled at Akaya.
"Is there a problem?" he asked from between Sanada's arms.
"Oh, no! No problem at all if you want my eyes to be bloodshot all of tomorrow", Akaya answered, rolling his eyes slightly.
"Oh no, we can't have that, you need to practise properly", Yukimura said, smiling gently.
"Renji said you could go there...", Sanada mumbled.
"Renji did?" Yukimura asked. "Our Master is much too clever for his own good."
"No, he's not, I wanna sleep", muttered Akaya, getting his pillow and stomping off.
As he stepped into the hallway, he heard Yukimura laugh softly and Sanada mutter something. He rolled his eyes again and closed the door a little too hard.
Akaya started walking towards the other end of the hall, looking for a place to lay his head for the night. If there was enough space in any of the other rooms he'd rather share a room with anybody else than Renji. His first choice would have been Jackal, but he was already sharing a room with Marui...
He stopped at door of the next room, listening to the noises in there. Clearly, Jackal and Marui weren't asleep; it was way too loud for that. Akaya slid the door open carefully.
The dark skinned boy was, once again, lying on his back with his friend straddling him. Jackal had two pillows far above his head and Marui was obviously trying to reach even one of them.
"Give back my pillow, you baldy! I wanna sleep already!" Marui was whining.
"What'll you give me, if I do?" the other teased.
"I'll give you half of my chocolate bar tomorrow."
Jackal shook his head. "Not good enough. What else?"
Marui sat up on Jackal and thought. "I'll... hm... give you a back rub after practise?"
"Sounds better", Jackal smiled, "anything else?"
Marui pouted and shifted a little. Akaya saw that Jackal's face reddened a bit and it made him blush too. Marui shifted again, looking down. He blinked and then a clever little smile appeared on his face.
"I'll give you a kiss."
Now Jackal blinked and pushed the pillows near the door, where Akaya was standing, wide-eyed and stunned. "Okay", said the dark boy quietly and licked his lips.
Akaya shut the door very, very carefully and tiptoed further from the door. He backed into the opposing wall and slid down to the floor. Okay, so Jackal's room was off the list. As much as he liked his two senpais, he didn't want to watch... or even listen them going at it. That was what he was running away from in the first place.
Slowly he got up and creeped to the next door. Maybe he could go sleep into Nioo-senpai's room. The room was, obviously, dark, but there were voices, so he knocked politely.
The door slid open quietly and the bespectacled boy peeked out. "Yes?"
"Could I come in?" Akaya muttered sleepily.
Yagyuu raised an eyebrow, but made way for the younger boy to enter the room. He walked over to the occupied mattress and slumped down next to Nioo.
"I'm tired", he announced.
"Um... go to bed?" Nioo suggested, glancing over at Yagyuu.
"I can't."
"And why is that?" Yagyuu asked, sitting down on his own mattress.
Akaya didn't answer, just rolled his eyes once again.
"We thought you were Sanada, coming to tell us to shut up and go to sleep", the ponytailed boy said, laughing quietly and ruffling Akaya's hair.
"Sanada's busy right now, and making probably more noise than you two put together."
Yagyuu looked at Nioo and again raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
Akaya blushed and grimaced. "They're... having a meeting..."
Nioo smirked: "One of those meetings, eh? And you, poor thing, were driven out."
"Why didn't you go to Jackal's room?" Yagyuu asked.
"They're... kinda having a pillowfight..."
"Aa, that explains the noise", Nioo smiled knowingly.
"It carries here? Then it's impossible for me to sleep here... I really have to room with Yanagi-senpai", Akaya moaned, utterly defeated.
Yagyuu and Nioo laughed. "It would have been impossible anyway, sorry to say; we only have two mattresses", Yagyuu said.
"You're just too cute, when you're tired, you know", Nioo said at the same time, smiling and ruffling his hair again. "Renji really isn't all that bad - at least, with him in the room, you'd get some sleep."
Akaya shivered. "But I don't know if I dare to close my eyes with him in the room."
"Why not?" Yagyuu asked, "He's not a monster, you know. And at least he's quiet."
Akaya sighed. "I guess you're right, senpai."
He got up, grabbed his pillow and left the room, leaving Yagyuu and Nioo discussing about their teammates. He went to the end of the hallway and stood behind the door for a good while, listening.
"You might as well come in, Akaya."
Akaya jumped and slid the door open. He smiled embarrassedly: "Sorry to intrude. I can't sleep anywhere else."
"There's a spare mattress. Just settle there", Renji said, pointing at Sanada's bed.
"Thank you", Akaya said, settling down and pulling the cover up to his chin. He looked at Renji from the corner of his eye.
"You can sleep already", Renji smiled a little, "I'll turn off the light soon."
Akaya nodded and closed his eyes. He was soon lulled to sleep by Renji's steady breathing and the tap of his pencil to the paper.
Renji put away his sudoku-book and looked at the younger boy beside him. He turned off the light and settled to sleep.
He's actually rather cute, that Akaya, Renji though just before falling asleep, especially when he's sleeping.
THE END