A/N:
Pairing/Groups: Tensai, ToFu, Sweet, Dirty. (Something around that... XD)
Interests in Fic: A slightly twisting plot, vivid descriptions and character interactions.
Request: A rather tense beginning with a happy/lively ending; (but no tragedies or angst please!) containing the following words: Christmas tree, hot chocolate, and snowflakes. Fluff would be preferred! The pairing doesn't really matter, could be any of the four listed above.
I just about crashed the request, but to Kitari-chan, my SS, I do hope this fic entertains you, if only a little. ;) *secretly comes up from behind and glomps* Muchly belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Much love to Reine who beta-ed it for me - I must admit I made many, many stupid mistakes and without her help and criticism this fic would've collapsed in two seconds. I am officially FAIL at writing fluff and/or romance.
"Another woman implies that Atobe is a woman." You are pure win, Reine. My mistake. XD
"This is the last time I'll ever go out with you again, Keigo." Fuji's voice was as frigid as his sharp, cold cerulean eyes as he gave a diva a frosty look. "How dare you mistrust me."
Those were the last words Fuji Syusuke uttered before he spun on his heel and marched away, his back stiff with hurt and indignity. Atobe stared after the tensai, one part of him wanting to shout out to Fuji, wanted to call him back, but the other arrogant side of him held back, silencing the voice that rose to his lips. It was difficult for Atobe Keigo to admit that he was wrong, simply because he was used to being right, whether he was or not. He clenched his hands at his sides tightly. It had wrenched him inside to see the shocked hurt in Fuji's eyes. He could tell, then, that the 'affair' he had seen in his office was completely one-sided and everything that Fuji had tried to explain was the truth. But he, Atobe Keigo, had been too caught up in jealousy, cruelly accusing Fuji of cheating on him with a woman he had never seen before in his life, and in his office, no less. Walking in to find them sprawled on the floor like that...all Atobe had seen was a streak of red, and he had struck Fuji across the face without much of a warning. It was the first time he had hit Fuji out of anger, and even then the jealousy he was feeling refused to abate.
Wait...jealousy? Atobe opened his eyes. Did he even have any right to feel jealous that Fuji had been cosy with a woman, willingly or not? Lately, it seemed that all he had been doing was pay more attention to his work rather than his relationship. It had been he who had asked Fuji to wait for him in the office while he finished up a meeting. Atobe found himself caught between an urge to go after Fuji and apologize for his hasty words, and his own mind telling him that letting the tensai leave would be best.
He was heading for the stairs before his mind had time to complete its argument.
Fuji had left only minutes before, and therefore he couldn't have gone very far. Atobe started out taking the stairs at a brisk jog, and ended up flat out running. He ignored the incredulous looks some of the building's patrons gave him. The feeling that he had done something horribly wrong began to fill him. As he glanced up and down the festively decorated street, hoping to catch sight of the brunette, he wondered how he would apologize.
There he was! He spotted Fuji walking away from the building, his coat buttoned against the cold. Without hesitating this time, Atobe caught up with the tensai, catching his arm in an attempt to stop him.
"Wait." Atobe said quickly. Fuji turned to look at him – his eyes were now cool and slightly wary. "Fuji...come back to my place."
"Why?" Fuji made no attempt to follow him, but neither did he shake off the diva's hand. He merely stood there, motionless, staring at Atobe. This hadn't been the first time Atobe had been jealous, he recalled. This had merely been the first time Atobe had gotten even the slightest bit physical about his anger. Before, when Atobe was jealous, Fuji had thought it was rather charming of the diva. Now...now, he wasn't so sure.
Atobe was on the verge of commanding Fuji to just follow him when the thought that he was being too imperious struck him. He tried to apologize, but found that his tongue tripped over the words. "Fuji..."
With a determined look on his face, Fuji shook his head slightly. "Go home and think things over." He said in a quiet voice. "It's hard being your boyfriend if you don't even trust me."
He really did shake off Atobe's hand this time, and started walking once more, away from Atobe. Atobe regretted hitting Fuji, he really did, but the diva was so used to getting his own way that he found it very difficult to apolgize for what he had done. He bit his lip in sudden determination.
"It's Christmas eve." He called out, keeping stride with Fuji, who ignored him as much as possible. "We had plans for tonight. You can't just...drop them now."
"We had plans for tonight." Fuji sighed. "But not now. I'm sorry."
"Look, what happened in the office.....was unintentional. Ore-sama – no, I honestly hadn't meant to do that."
Fuji stopped, looking up at Atobe. "That just makes it worse." He stated simply. "If you didn't mean to hit me, it just means that the second time anything happens, you'll be striking people impulsively again. In a way, that's worse than intentionally hitting someone. If you're doing it intentionally, you can stop yourself, can't you?"
Atobe wasn't about to argue with Fuji – he knew what the brunette had said was true. All he had seen was a flash of red, and he had acted impulsively. But the street walk-way wasn't a place for him to apologize. He took hold of Fuji's arm again. "I'll apologize and make it up to you if you come home to my place tonight."
Unexpectedly, Fuji took a few steps backwards, jerking his arm away. "I meant it when I refused. You're so used to other people bending over for you, you don't really give a damn when it comes to other people's choices, do you?"
Atobe was briefly stunned; as a result, he failed to see the construction area that Fuji was backing right into, not until the clanking of metal drew his attention to the work area behind. Several workers were putting up last-minute festive decorations, chiefly the large double bells that were to hang across the walkway. They had cordoned off the area, but Fuji was about to walk straight into the roped off area unless someone stopped him. Atobe opened his mouth.
"What are you doing?!"
The shout startled Atobe, but surprisingly it wasn't directed at Fuji. There was a screech of metal, the sound of something snapping...and a shrill scream from a female passerby split the air.
The ropes hauling the bells into place had snapped, and now the bells were sliding towards the ground with an omnious rasping sound. Construction workers were yelling as they attempted to catch hold of the bells, but the metal contraption was too large and heavy for them to hold on to without the help of machinery. They shouted and gestured futilely as the bells continued to fall.
It would hit Fuji, Atobe realized suddenly. Although the bell's original position was several feet from the young man, its large bulk and skewed trajectory meant that it would hit Fuji unless the tensai moved out of the way, and even then, flying debris could still prove dangerous. He glanced at Fuji, who had noticed the danger, but seemed frozen to the spot.
Atobe's instinct and his fast reflexes knocked both of them out of the bell's direct crash course. They hit the ground some feet away from where the bell smashed into the pavement with a dreadful squeal of metal grinding against cement, sending showers of gravel exploding out in all directions. Atobe tried to suppress a groan when he noticed that dirt covered the front of his business suit.
"Keigo? Keigo!" A frantic voice exclaimed.
Atobe couldn't help a tiny smirk. Oh, he was Keigo now, was he?
"I'm fine." He pushed himself up and brushed at the dirt on his suit, his distaste showing. Then he moved his shoulder, and felt it twinge where he had hit the pavement.
A hand touched him, and he glanced aside to see Fuji, equally dusty, with a red graze along one cheekbone. "Ah – you're hurt."
Fuji smiled wryly. "A scratch's probably better than being flattened, I suppose."
The construction workers ran forward, some still waving their arms and jabbering out instructions madly.
"Thank goodness both of you are alive!" They exclaimed. "We must call an ambulance - "
"No." Atobe interrupted as firmly as he could. "My chauffeur will be here soon to pick us up."
"But - "
"I assure you we are unharmed." Atobe replied loftily. "Let's go, Fuji."
The tensai hesitated before slipping a hand in Atobe's.
The chauffeur picked them up five minutes later, and they arrived at Atobe's mansion in under fifteen minutes. Once he reached home, Atobe went up to his room and stripped off the ruined business suit, tossing it in a careless heap on the floor. He unbuttoned his shirt, rubbing his protesting shoulder as he did so.
"Does it hurt?"
Fuji had slipped into the room, a first aid kit box in his hands, his eyes this time filled with nothing but concern. He had been to Atobe's house so often that he knew where every tiny thing was, and Atobe couldn't imagine coming home to a place where he couldn't find Fuji every other day.
He wanted Fuji to forgive him. He didn't want one incident to split them apart. Fuji was his....just as he was Fuji's.
He leaned forward, ignoring the first aid kit box that poked him in the chest, and planted a kiss on Fuji's lips. "I'm sorry." He murmured, and pulled away. "There, I've said it." He added in an almost disgruntled tone.
Fuji stared at him.
"I did say that if you came home with me I'd apologize." Atobe pointed out when he caught Fuji looking at him. "And I did. I'm...really sorry."
"Are you genuinely sorry?" Fuji asked, and suddenly Atobe developed an interest in the picture that hung over at the far wall. Then he heard a sigh, and he sneaked a glance at Fuji.
"Let's see your shoulder." Fuji ordered, pulling the shirt open as he popped open the lid of the first aid kit box. Atobe allowed him to touch the developing bruise – then winced as the sadistic tensai gave him a hard poke, right on the bruise.
"Nothing very serious." Fuji sounded extremely cheery as he began soothing some balm across the bruise. "I'm sure you got worse in tennis."
Atobe grumbled back an unintelligible reply.
"There...all done." The brunette gave him another jab, and Atobe twitched. "That'll stay on even if you shower."
Atobe turned to look at Fuji, still slightly unsure whether he had been forgiven. At least he didn't seem angry...that was a good sign. He felt a pang of guilt when he saw the graze on Fuji's face. Uncannily enough, it was in the exact same spot where he had struck the man earlier.
"You know...if you're not going to use the shower, I'll steal it." A smile lit Fuji's face, and Atobe knew that he had let go of the issue. A small sigh of relief escaped him. "Or we could use it together."
Now Atobe smiled. "Why not?"
One and a half hours later, they were both in the warm refuge of the lounge room, enjoying the warmth and the cups of hot chocolate that Fuji had made in the kitchen. Said brunette had a band-aid stuck over the scratch on his cheek, and Atobe had to constantly stop his hand from straying over to Fuji and stroking his cheek gently.
"You're being very stiff today." Fuji murmured as he cupped the mug in both hands. "It's almost like you're on your best behaviour." His voice was teasing.
"Well..." Atobe trailed off awkwardly.
"About today...I guess I acted too hastily." Fuji admitted. He rubbed the rim of the mug with his fingers, staring at the Christmas tree that was bedecked in all its glory, sparking and shining like a colourful snowflake. Neither of them voiced the fact that Atobe, too, had acted hastily and on impulse, and somehow, Atobe didn't feel like bringing that up. They sat together for a few companiable minutes, watching the clock approach half past eleven.
"Are we counting down to Christmas?"
"I don't see why not." Fuji said reasonably. "After all, that was our plan for tonight, wasn't it?" He cuddled into Atobe's side, and suddenly the diva had an urge to simply....ignore the clock. After all, they were definitely still going to be awake by midnight, he was sure, doing all sorts of...things.
"I think we can count down to midnight perfectly fine in my bedroom." Atobe said suddenly, and then was equally horrified at what he had said, for he hadn't meant to say the words...not out loud, in any case. Fuji tilted his head to give him an amused look.
"Shall we go?" Fuji suggested suddenly, placing his mug on the table.
"Go where?" Atobe was actually wondering if Fuji had agreed to retreat to the bedroom until he noticed that the tensai was leading him to the glass doors that opened out to the garden. "Outside?"
He didn't notice the snow until a snowflake melted on his face, a cold tingle after the heat of the lounge room.
"It's...snowing."
"It looks very pretty." Fuji agreed, watching the snow settle lightly over the grass. It had only recently started snowing – the grass was barely covered at all. "Atobe...I don't see how you can be jealous of everyone who even talks to me when we share so much that's so special."
Atobe shifted slightly under Fuji's gaze.
"I'm not exactly the type to go chasing after anyone in skirts either." A wry smile tugged at Fuji's lips. "Our relationship won't be able to last long if you don't stop thinking I'm cheating on you left and right."
Atobe knew that Fuji was right, but he didn't want to say anything for fear of risking another fight. It was better to remain silent, he decided.
Fuji grinned and slipped his arms around the diva. "That said...it's getting pretty cold out here, you know. Let's go somewhere warmer...say...your bedroom?" He tapped a cold finger against the back of Atobe's neck. "After all, I'm sure we can count down to midnight from there just fine."
//Omake//
Atobe grunted as he felt the bed shift, and he reached out blindly, feeling a hand close around his groping one.
"Merry Christmas." A voice breathed in his ear, sounding rather amused. "We missed the midnight deadline while...doing other things. Well, at least we had fun."
"Merry Christmas." Atobe snarked right back at Fuji. "I don't care if we missed the midnight mark. At least we did something worthwhile in the time up to it."
Fuji laughed quietly. "Worthwhile? I suppose so." He reached to the side, and rummaged about until he came up with a small package, nicely wrapped and ribboned. "Have a happy holiday, Keigo. Here, have a present to celebrate."
Atobe stared at the box in confusion. It was Christmas...so it was customary to get gifts....and Fuji had just given him one...but...
Oh shit. He had forgotten to get Fuji one, and somehow, he felt that the tensai wouldn't be very happy...
Where's...the fluff?? *runs*
In any case, review and I'll glomp you. :3 Concrit and suggestions very much welcome so they may be bookmarked for future references in writing fluff. Thank you!
PS: This fic was posted on the stroke of midnight Australia time. :D Happy New Year, Kitari-chan, although this fic was more on Christmas, I do hope you enjoyed it. *luffs*