A KaidohxInui story. Only Part one.

Kaidoh sighed, anxious, he stood outside of the court gates as Inui-senpai and Oishi-senpai were discussing something, something that made Oishi laugh uncomfortably and made Inui press the issue. Kaidoh wondered what his senpai's were discussing.

Practice was over, Momo and Echizen were still in the locker room, and right now Momo had started tickling Echizen, causing the kohai to curse and laugh spastically. Kaidoh tried to ignore the two, but found it strange that the normally sedate Echizen had such boyish laughter. It didn't last long, Echizen had grabbed a racket and begin beating Momo-senpai, and after that he left the locker room blushing and pulling his cap over his face. "Echizennnn….." whined Momo, as he followed after him, "I'll buy you a Pontaaaaa…."

Kaidoh shook his head as the two left, mumbling "Baka" under his breath. Kikumaru was whining to Oishi on the other side of the court about going home. Taka-san had work and had left early. Tezuka and Fuji were talking as they looked over the freshmen picking up the balls. Kaidoh sighed once more, somewhat wishing he had a slightly better relationship with his teammates.

Kaidoh was nervous about something, and he wished he had someone to talk about it with. Keeping it inside was driving him mad. He didn't know what to call it. A crush? Insanity? A…..dear he say it? "First love"? The only thing he knew was that when Inui-senpai was around the world just seemed a little more visible and beautiful. He had started noticing himself taking a deep breath whenever Inui entered a room. Or when Inui spoke to him,….it was as if his favorite song was playing, and he tuned out the rest of the world and turned up Inui's voice in his head and did a mental happy dance.

Someone had to know, he thought. Or he had to tell someone. He wanted to be around his Senpai, and he wanted to walk home with him. He wanted to dream about him… and to talk to him. He wanted to- "Kaidoh? You're still here?"

Kaidoh blushed. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't realize that Inui-senpai had finished his discussion with Oishi and was standing right in front of him. "Oh….um..I-I'm sorry…I was …I mean…" Kaidoh stuttered.

"You were smiling." Said Inui, smiling slightly. Kaidoh blushed further. His thoughts had leaked out into the world and probably caused him to make all sorts of faces.

"I'm- I'm sorry." Said Kaidoh looking away shamefully.

"Why are you apologizing?" Said Inui. Kaidoh looked up. Inui pulled out his notebook. "This will make excellent data." Kaidoh almost fell over, as his senpai jotted down the interesting phenomenon and walked off, Kaidoh stared at Inui's back and wondered how he should ask him.

'Can I walk home with you' he thought. 'Hey lets walk home together'. No, Kaidoh thought, that won't work. When he thought the words "with you" or "together" he felt like he wanted to explode. He couldn't possibly say those things.

As Kaidoh was staring at Inui's back Fuji walked up behind him. "Hello." He said causing Kaidoh to jump.

"Fu-Fuji-senpai?!" said Kaidoh.

"Aren't you going to ask him to walk home with you?" Asked Fuji as Kaidoh pulled himself together.

"Huh?" said Kaidoh blushing.

"It's okay, the worse that could happen is he tells you 'no'." Kaidoh blushed.

"I-I don't care either way." Kaidoh lied, turning up his nose pridefully.

Fuji laughed. "Suite yourself," He chimed, "But I'm going to walk home with my man."

Fuji giggled as Kaidoh stared at him blankly. Tezuka locked the locker door as he left it and gripped Fuji's shoulder. "Are you ready?" He asked. Then noticing Kaidoh. "Kaidoh, what's wrong, what are you doing here?" Tezuka seemed a little embarrassed an annoyed, but saw the look on Kaidoh's face. "What did you do?" he said turning to Fuji.

Fuji pouted. "Nothing, Ku-ni-mi-tsu" Said Fuji gripping Tezuka's nose between his fingers, "I was just telling him to be careful on his way home." Tezuka gave Fuji a disbelieving look and glanced at Kaidoh. "You should go." He said, then looking over Kaidoh's head, "Inui is waiting for you." Kaidoh lit up and turned around. Sure enough, Inui was standing only a couple of feet from where he started writing his data in his notebook, staring blankly at Kaidoh. "Lets go." He said.

Kaidoh took in the situation and nodded. "Yes, senpai."

For now being with Inui would make Kaidoh happy. For how long, Kaidoh did not know, but at least for now he could settle with just walking beside him.