Disclaimer: I don't own the characters. Konomi Takeshi does. I'm merely playing with them for the moment.

A/N: I've made myself a challenge of writing a fic for every pairing I have ever read, written, or imagined for Atobe or Dan. This is one of those.

Obviously, this pairing was just the logical conclusion.

Blame the Kitten

There were certain things that upon closer inspection were plausible but seemed so unlikely nobody ever even considered them possible. Consequently, such things always came unexpected whenever they occurred, aside from some very special circumstances. And, in face of such unexpectedness, even the most controlled people may sometimes find themselves losing their perfectly polished mask for a moment.

At least this was Atobe's excuse for the somewhat befuddled expression that remained on his face for a moment as he stared at the sight before him. After all, it wasn't all that usual that people fell down from the sky in front of him.

So technically it wasn't the sky, fair enough. However, he also wasn't used to people falling down from trees – not without him noticing them at first, anyway. God alone knew how Mukahi came up with some of his crazier schemes.

Mukahi was quite irrelevant right now, though. The person who had shocked him momentarily was not a small, bitchy redhead turning to glare at him for startling them to fall. No, the only trait this person seemed to share with Mukahi was the small size; on all other counts, they were quite decidedly different. This person had dark hair, a notebook still in his hand and a face Atobe recalled seeing before yet couldn't quite place. He also appeared to be just as stunned by his sudden fall as Atobe had been by witnessing it.

"Ow," muttered the mystery person. "That hurt desu!"

"Excuse me for not being shocked to hear such a sentiment voiced by someone who just fell from a tree," Atobe said, quickly regaining his usual composure. "Why would you even do something so utterly pointless as climbing up a tree in the first place?"

"It wasn't pointless!" the boy snapped, sending a glare his way. He didn't make a very intimidating image with his slightly over-sized tennis jacket and shorts of a team Atobe vaguely recognized. "I had a very good reason!"

"Oh, I'm sure you did." Atobe wasn't sure why he wasn't simply continuing on his way, but he couldn't help but be mildly interested in this little creature that plummeted down from the sky like some squirrel turned into lead and then thought nothing of glaring at him. Him, Atobe Keigo. Oh, he'd certainly received his share of glares before, but never from someone who looked so utterly... harmless. "Perhaps to stalk someone?" He glanced at the notebook. It brought to mind one person in particular... one person who had quite some capabilities in such activities.

"I don't stalk anyone from trees!" huffed the boy. "Even if I was gathering data, I wouldn't do something like that just to stay hidden desu!"

It certainly didn't help Atobe's opinion of the boy that he'd heard no denial of the act of stalking, merely of doing it in a tree. Not very promising, really. Then again, someone like Inui probably wouldn't have come crashing down in front of someone, so even if this boy was a data gatherer, he apparently wasn't all that successful of one. "I'd get that cleaned if I were you. It'll get infected." He nodded towards the boy's leg, which had apparently been scratched in the fall, blood and dirt now mixing on the pale skin.

"I guess I should desu." The boy tried to push himself up from his half-sitting position, only to wince. "Owww." He rubbed his arm gingerly. "Guess I shouldn't have landed on it after all."

"You mean you fell on your side on purpose?" Atobe raised his eyebrows. "I would have thought anyone with enough presence of mind during a fall to worry about their position would be most concerned with making sure their head doesn't hit the ground."

"Well, yeah, but I had something else to worry about desu." Managing to sit up, the boy tried to raise his hand, only to wince again and drop his notebook to use the other one, unzipping his jacket. "I had to make sure she wasn't hurt as I fell."

A small, decidedly feline head peeked out. Then the rest of the body followed as the kitten jumped out of the boy's clothing.

Atobe raised his eyebrows. "Do you often carry cats around in such a manner?" he asked. A strange child, indeed.

"Only when I need to get them down from trees desu." Finally, the boy smiled, even though it was just faintly. Somehow, this expression seemed much more natural on his face than the glares from before.

"...Wait." Now things were coming together in a way that actually made sense a bit. How remarkable. "Do you mean... you climbed up into the tree to get her down?"

"Well, obviously. I mean, some trees are good for climbing just for fun, sure, but this isn't a very good tree for climbing, now is it?" The boy glanced up at the tree. "I heard her crying for help desu. It took me a long time to get her to trust me desu... And then, on my way down, a branch snapped under my weight desu."

Atobe sighed. Such a childish scheme... and yet, the purpose for it was... acceptable. Though still rather stupid, of course. "Don't you have any idea how badly you could have hurt yourself?" he asked. Not because he cared, obviously, but because he wanted the kid to understand just how idiotic his little stunt had been. Climbing trees for the sake of a kitten and actually dragging his notebook along... idiotic.

"Very badly, I guess desu." The boy blinked up at him. "But I wasn't exactly thinking of that part of it at the time desu."

"I should hope not," murmured Atobe. Then, he snapped his fingers. "Kabaji. Take care of those injuries."

"I can take care of myself desu," the boy protested, a bit flustered even as Kabaji stepped past Atobe with a quiet, "Usu", and picked him up. The boy only barely had enough time to grab his notebook before being lifted up. "And there's nothing wrong with my leg!"

"Except the blood and dirt," Atobe pointed out dryly. "In any case, you don't know yet if your arm is the only thing you've hurt. Speaking of which, you'd better hope it's nothing serious. I should think tennis is more important than a simple kitten's cries." And if it wasn't, what was the boy doing in a tennis team anyway?

"That's okay," the boy replied, actually managing to smile. Apparently he was accepting the fact Kabaji wasn't letting him down right now. "I'm left-handed."

"...Figures." Atobe sighed. "It seems all the worst idiots always are." Like Tezuka, continuing to play despite his obvious pain. Maybe it was genetic or something?

"I'm not an idiot." The boy... pouted. Wasn't he a bit too old for pouting? "And unlike Tezuka-san, I would hardly have the willpower to play even while injured."

Atobe glanced at him even as he started walking, Kabaji following as always. "I never said a thing about Tezuka."

"Yet you must have thought about him as you said what you did desu." The boy tilted his head to the side. "Everyone knows about your rivalry with him, Atobe-san. Given the circumstances, it would be a wonder if you didn't think of him upon your remark desu."

Now, Atobe couldn't help the little smirk curling his lips. "Aren't you the knowledgeable little thing, now." He glanced at the boy. "But isn't it a bit impolite to call me by my name when you haven't introduced yourself, yet?" Of course, countless girls and other such unremarkable beings did that on a daily basis. Yet he hardly engaged in such conversations with them, either.

"I never thought you might be interested in it desu." The boy blinked, looking rather sincere. "I'm Dan Taichi, first year at Yamabuki Middle School."

"First year, eh?" Atobe raised his eyebrows. "I never knew there were data players that young." Not that he knew a lot about data players in general, granted. He'd never paid much attention to them aside from the fact of their existence.

"Few people do." ...Now, that was more of a smirk than a smile, there. "You wouldn't believe how much of an advantage it gives me sometimes desu! Nobody knows to be wary of me."

"Aren't you the cunning one." Atobe couldn't help but chuckle. "Oh, great. We're here." He nodded towards the sight of a tennis club down the street. Some of his teammates were already gathering in front of it. They noticed him soon, something of a buzz developing when they noticed the boy Kabaji was carrying.

"What's this?" Mukahi asked, pointing at Dan as they got close enough. "Are you stealing players from other teams, now?"

"Tempting though that is, considering your incompetence, I'm afraid that's not the case this time," Atobe said even as he led them into the grounds of the rather exclusive tennis club. The owner bowed quickly upon seeing him. There was a reason he preferred clubs ultimately belonging to the family. "He hurt himself and I told Kabaji to take care of it."

"So it's a case of you taking a pet, then." Hiyoshi raised his eyebrows. "Since when have you concerned yourself with strangers, anyway?"

"Oh, I merely thought of giving you more of a challenge next year by letting him gather some data." Atobe watched as Kabaji settled Dan down on a bench next to the courts, taking out a water bottle to rinse the dirt off the scratched leg. Of course, that wasn't exactly his main motivation here, even though the idea did amuse him somewhat. Someone from the club brought quickly a first aid kit, allowing Kabaji to properly clean the leg before putting band-aids over the surprisingly big wound. It wasn't anything serious, far as Atobe could tell, but it did look rather nasty.

"That looks really bad," Jirou said, blinking at the sight before he yawned. "No wonder Kabaji carried you! ...He was much nicer about it than when he carries me, too."

"Ah, no," Dan hurried to reply. "Actually, it's my arm that hurts the most desu..." He kicked his leg up even as Kabaji moved on to examining his arm. "See? It's all right!"

Atobe turned his attention to the rest of his team, barking orders at them even as Kabaji continued to care for the boy. He hadn't brought them here to slack off, after all. It wasn't until they were all properly practising that he turned his attention to the two. "You can stay here if you want," he said. "Maybe I can motivate Jirou by reminding him he needs to set an example for the kid…"

"Thank you desu!" Somewhat to Atobe's surprise, the boy didn't even protest at being called a kid, instead smiling brightly. He'd rarely seen a smile that bright, not even when Jirou was really excited about something. It might have been just his imagination, but somehow he got the feeling it wasn't only because of the data available.

Such a strange kid this was.