Standard disclaimer yaoi warning...blah blah blah.
I think i meant this for a thirtykisses challenge but...whatever.
If anyone's interested, I'll probably post and update faster on my lj (link in profile)
PillarPair rocks my socks!
Excuses
Thinking was such a weak word, he hadn't been thinking it. Ryoma had been saying it inside his head, had been saying it for as long as he could remember but that was strange because he didn't remember saying it, opening up an imaginary mouth and flicking an imaginary tongue to say, 'Look at me,' in an imaginary voice that would be more trustworthy than his own because when he had opened his real mouth, it had been dry with anticipation and anger and a burning, all-consuming frustration.
He never had to ask; people looked at him all the time. Until he had finally gotten used to it, learned how to cope with it, sometimes, when he had broken through a good opponent's game; he even enjoyed the gasps and "Oh my god!"
He had never learned to crave it, not until he felt that weird jumble of feelings when the Monkey King interrupted his and buchou's private game to challenge him to a match. He shouldn't even have known that they were here. Ryoma had made a mental note to challenge Inui-senpai to a match later and humiliate him.
He was pretty sure he never acted like this when Eiji-senpai couldn't stop hugging Oishi-senpai or when Momo-chan-senpai and Kaidoh-senpai (also in high school by now) had a fight and ran off to play a match forgetting that he was there. Though he had refused to talk to Momo-chan-senpai for a week after he left him without a ride home from the park. This was different. He didn't want buchou looking at Atobe like that, narrow-eyed and calculating. It meant that he was considering the queston, actually considering saying yes. Ryoma's heart jumped crazily (leftover adrenaline from the game, he had assured himself) when he said- later; said- "I'm playing with Echizen now."
Then the Monkey King looked unruffled and drawled something about Ore-sama being better company, and how buchou should be playing with someone his own level. And buchou had, just for a moment, looked tired and Ryoma knew that he had been having trouble getting rest. It was there in the slump of his shoulder and the slightly-drooped eyelids and the way he never quite focused on Ryoma's face the way Ryoma wanted him to. Ryoma also knew that this was mostly because Atobe had been bothering him all the time. Day and night.
And that, Ryoma concluded in his apology note to buchou, was why he had called out, "Oy, Monkey King" and strolled across the court to smugly kiss buchou.
It was all buchou's fault really.
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After he got home, Kunimtsu looked at the note with his name on it in the slightly awkward strokes of someone who hadn't been writing Kanji all his life. It was from Echizen, the side of his lip twitched slightly at the sulky explanation given for the shocking kiss three days earlier. He had heard something about Inui being beaten 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 some days back at the street courts. He should be more surprised but this was Echizen who never did anything the ordinary way. Not even confessing a crush.
He put aside the note but the half-smile still remained. He made a mental note to himself to call Echizen up later and ask him whether he wanted to finish their match.
Thank you for reading- I hope you liked it.