Title: Provocation
Fandom: Prince of Tennis
Character(s) or Pairing: Kirihara, Yanagi
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Word Count: 787
Summary: Kirihara likes to bother people.
A/N: Written for a friend, for a personal writing challenge.
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Kirihara likes to bother people: not like Niou does, but in his own way, get to them and make them pay attention to him. His favorites are Sanada and Yanagi - there is no way he could ever bother Niou or Marui, for when he tries, it usually backfires; Jackal is too relaxed and too used to his pranks, and Yagyuu is much like Niou. (Although Kirihara will never admit it, Yagyuu scares him at times.) But Sanada and Yanagi: they're they fun ones.
Sanada yells and screams and will sometimes smack him, but Kirihara knows when to bite back - quite literally too. There have been times when Sanada's gone home with a bite mark on his hand or wrist, scowling just a little too much. But for the most part, Sanada simply yells. And assigns laps.
Not that Kirihara minds those, all that much; he runs laps enough, extra won't hurt, not really. Unless they start interfering with his training or the time he goes home. (But Sanada knows to never assign so many that Kirihara is there late or has to miss practice: it's either Sanada or Yanagi who stay to observe and lock up after him and for all of Sanada's faults, he won't make his friend suffer as well.)
Most of the time, Sanada's reactions are amusing enough, after everything happens, that Kirihara can laugh about them later or hear praise from Niou or Marui, for a job well done.
But even for all the amusement provoking Sanada brings, Yanagi is Kirihara's favorite to bother: there's something different about provoking Yanagi than there is about Sanada, and not just because Yanagi doesn't yell and get all worked up. Yanagi is one of the few who actually pay attention to him when he's bothering people, getting to the root of the reason why Kirihara is desperate for people to notice him.
Kirihara has different methods of provoking Yanagi, as well; the same one, time after time, would get old and not work any longer. So he experiments.
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Kirihara laughs and it sounds more like a giggle than laughter from a teenage boy should. Yanagi ignores it for a moment, although his eyes open just a little more and he peers out the corner of them to observe Kirihara.
As if knowing this, Kirihara reaches across the space that divides them - less than a foot, really, for they are seated on the floor of his bedroom - and lightly pokes Yanagi's shoulder.
And laughs - giggles - again.
Yanagi has to resist smiling; listening to Kirihara laugh, untroubled by anything at the moment, makes him happier than it probably should, and he doesn't mind the slight touches. He returns to his homework, trying to concentrate on the Japanese history he has.
A minute goes by - Yanagi counts in his mind - and then he hears another giggle and feels another touch. The smile continues to tug at his lips, but he resists, and mentally starts counting again.
The time decreases by 10 seconds, and then he is feeling another poke. It's not hard enough to hurt or even to leave a mark, but it's there and Yanagi thinks if Kirihara keeps it up, he's going to be feeling the ghost of the touch all night.
Its only 40 seconds this time, before he feels it again, and Yanagi has to wonder if Kirihara is timing it to be that precise.
It's at 30 seconds that Yanagi's eyes open wider and he looks to Kirihara, sitting there smiling as innocently as he possibly could - which, for all of his mischievousness and chaos on the courts, could be quite innocent - pretending like nothing is going wrong. But 20 seconds go by and there he is, reaching across that space to poke Yanagi's shoulder again, and giggling.
"Why are you poking me?" he asks, finally, when Kirihara moves to poke him again, mirth very evident in his eyes.
"I wanted to get your attention," Kirihara tells him, and still pokes Yanagi's shoulder.
"Oh?" Yanagi pauses. "Is there a particular reason why?"
"No. You're just paying too much attention to your homework."
"You should be doing the same thing, Akaya." Yanagi glances to his homework, and then pushes it aside, as he sees Kirihara's hands come up again, ready to poke him.
"There's always time for it later," Kirihara responds, his grin brightening when he realizes Yanagi is setting aside his homework. His hand doesn't drop, however, and he reaches out to poke Yanagi's shoulder once again, only to have his hand grabbed before he could make contact. Kirihara finds himself pulled into Yanagi's lap, which was exactly where he wanted to be.