Inui was walking in the midst of the dark toward his home. It was ten already, which was sure to provoke his parents' anger hadn't today been an exception. His parents would understand once he explained how important that day was to Seigaku that his night time was spent in Kamamura's sushi house, celebrating their victory in Kanto regional Championship.

By the time he had finished preparing his excuses while reminiscing all the chaotic events during the celebration, his house came to the sight. Staggering slightly out of both fatigue and drowsiness, he whipped the key from his pants and unlocked the door.

As he pushed the door open, he prepared himself mentally for a sudden scold from his parents, however, it didn't come. To his utter surprise, his parents were not even in sight, and instead he was greeted by the sight of a certain master of Rikkai standing before him.

"Ren-ji…" Inui fumbled, unsure of what to feel. He was just home in mirth from celebrating his team's victory, and in front of him was the man whom he had beaten to achieve this mirth, who unconviniently just happened to be his long lost partner- no, friend.

He was amongst the feeling of happiness, aghast, pity, and again mirth, for finding his lost friend not to be as distant as he had thought he was. And hadn't Yanagi spoke anything, he might remained frozen by the door for some time, allowing several mosquitoes to invade his home along.

"Do not be so perplexed, Sadaharu." Yanagi spoke, as if reading Inui's mind.

Finally Inui snapped from his frozen state. "Wha-"

"I came here to ask for some of your concoction. However, as you were not home two hours ago, I waited inside on your parents' approval." Yanagi answered before Inui could ask. Inui sighed before he took a step inside his home and closed the door behind him.

Yanagi waited patiently as Inui took of his shoes and put them inside the wooden rack on his right. Then he moved away to let Inui led him to what he calculated to be his room. Although he figured that he would searched for his parents first.

Precisely to calculation Inui took a detour to the living room, where his parents were waiting with the television on. He explained himself of why he was late, and although he knew Inui tried to make it as short and direct as possible, Yanagi couldn't help but to feel as if he was mocked of his defeat indirectly through the praises given by Inui's parents.

Five minutes later, the conversation came to an end. Both Inui and he excused themselves, Yanagi offered an apology for staying in their house at such time, and continued to go to their main destination. In no time, they halted in front of a white door. Inui pushed it open and stepped inside with Yanagi on his tail.

As soon as they were both inside, Inui flicked the switch on and closed the door. There was a pregnant silence between them as they stared at each other. Yanagi was about to open his mouth when Inui spoke first.

"So, why do you still need any concoction of mine?"

Inui saw his friend frowned a little before he replied, his tone lower than usual. "For our captain's recovery." he continued silently, For punishment as well.

"Ah…" Inui turned to his desk and took a notebook from one of the shelves. He sat down, scanning its content swiftly.

"Make yourself comfortable, Renji." Inui kindly offered. Even so, Yanagi chose to remain standing, ignoring the hidden fact that he had been doing that ever since he came to this house.

The sound of the crickets and the clock filled in the silence, until a conversation was brought up between them courtesy of Inui.

"Do you want the exact one I gave you before?" He asked, showing Yanagi a certain page of his notebook which was filled with scribbles and graphs that only they both could understand.

Yanagi stepped forward and scrutinized the page. "It has proven to be effective. I will take four." He added. "Oh, and please fix the taste of one of them."

Inui nodded at the request and went downstairs to prepare the ingredients. A few minutes later, he came up with the exact same ingredients as Yanagi knew he would need. The concocting process went in silence, and Yanagi was content with it. In any case, it was his fault that their friendship had grown awkwardly. And to come and visit him at such time of the month would not help at all, if it didn't worsen the condition instead.

"Renji." Inui called out of nowhere while chopping some leaves.

"Yes?"

"Do you remember the reason why I made juices in the first place?"

"…I do, Sadaharu." Yanagi answered after a while. Sure, he remembered perfectly the first time Inui started making juice, or as he called it, healing vomit.

Everything began four years ago, approximately three months after enrollment and two years before their farewell. Both had gone active in their school's tennis club. And not only the school, but also the world had started to hear of their name.

On that day, nothing went out of the ordinary at first. They went through lessons, and participated in tennis club after school as usual. That was until a one-on-one match between Yanagi and Inui commenced. Three games to two at the moment to Inui's favor.

Yanagi bounced the ball to the ground three times before he caught it. "I'm going to serve!" Yanagi shoved the ball at his opponent.

Inui prepared himself for the serve. Behind the specs, his eyes followed the ball's movement started from the time Yanagi threw it in the air.

His body was ready to chase the ball the second after it reached its peak. To his surprise, the ball continued its way to the ground instead of going to his side. Inui looked up, and what he saw was not a pretty sight.

There was his friend, eyes wide open, standing still. Yanagi showed no movement as gravitation pulled him along with the ball he had thrown. Panic ran through Inui's vein immediately. Without thinking, he discarded his racket and rushed to the other side of the court.

"Renji!" he called, shaking the stoned body on the ground and rolled him onto his back.

No response. Yanagi's eyes were open, yet their gazes were empty. Inui waved his hand in front of them. They didn't blink.

"RENJI!" He called again, this time he was unable to suppress tears from wetting his cheeks.

Still no response.

Inui tried calling him again and again, and the only thing he managed to accomplish by that was gathering all the tennis club members around him. Had they given him some aid, he wouldn't mind. But the only thing they did were whispering things around him. And they weren't pleasant.

"Maybe it's that case…"

"He's probably just tired."

"My, what a ruckus he made."

Inui wanted to yell at them, for them to stop scorning his partner if it would help Yanagi. But he knew better. Inui closed his mind and focused himself on checking Yanagi's condition. His breath is racing. His temperatures are normal. His muscles are tensing. He doesn't respond to any of my touch. I had heard this before, but could it be that-

"Let's get him to the hospital."

"Wha!"

Inui jumped when someone suddenly put his hand on his shoulder. It turned out to be the captain. Inui nodded at the offer and wiped his tears before he lifted his partner. Inui nearly fell hadn't his captain put his hand on his back.

"Here, let me carry him for you." The captain kneeled, motioning Inui to put Yanagi on his back. Inui took the offer and handed him his friend. As they made their first step to the hospital, a tug to Inui's shirt stopped him on his track.

Noticing Inui's sudden halt, he stopped as well. Inui's worried frown turned upside down almost immediately. "Renji!" He cried, relief dripped from his words. He gladly took Yanagi's hand and held it with two hands.

"Don't…" Yanagi pleaded weakly.

"What are you talking about, Renji? We-"

"DON'T!"

He couldn't be exactly called screaming with such volume, however, the statement was indeed louder than the previous one. Inui, being his partner and all, knew instantly that Renji was serious despite his absurd rejection.

"I'll take care of him, captain." Inui let go of Renji's hand and kneeled on one foot, asking for his friend back. The captain gave him a worried look, but upon hearing Inui's plea, he sighed and reluctantly returned his partner.

"Thank you." Inui gripped around Yanagi's waist and rushed from the court to the only place he knew that someone would answer Yanagi's illness beside the hospital.

Hopefully my father is home…

It didn't take long for him to arrive to his destination. He stared at the golden hue door for a while, and decided to kick the door in place of knocking for both of his hands were occupied. He barely noticed that Yanagi had been weakly gripping on his shirt until now.

He waited after three kicks. The door didn't flung open. Inui cursed under his breath.

"I have no choice." Inui whipped his keys from his pocket Then he slipped the key inside and kick the door open. He kicked the door close and threw his shoe away like what he had done to his racquet before. He'd deal with those later.

Inui put his friend on the couch and glanced at the wall clock. His parents were usually home after sunset, after five to be precise. It was twenty minutes to four. I can't wait for my parents to go home…

He turned his gaze back to his partner. His breath had slowed down. His body was a little sticky and cold, probably from the sweat he made during the match. His eyes were now closed. He predicted that Yanagi was probably asleep. But one couldn't be too sure.

"Renji?" He kneeled. Then he brushed Yanagi's bangs away.

"Sadaharu…" The reply was softer than a whisper, yet loud enough to be heard. Yanagi's body turned to face Inui with a grunt.

"Renji…"

"My notebook…" Yanagi replied before Inui could ask. Inui immediately searched for Yanagi's bag when realization hit him.

"I'm going back to take our bags!" He said in a hurry as he went outside. He slammed the door close and ran back to the courts as quick as possible. It was certainly a good thing that his house was near to the school. It was also surprising how much energy Inui had left after all those works.

It took him thirty minutes to return back home. As soon he was back, he ran to the living room and put their bags near the couch Yanagi was lying on. He took Yanagi's bag and searched for the thing he asked for. To his confusion, there were lots of books that were similar in size but different in color, and none of them were titled 'notebook'. Heck, even none of them were titled at all.

"The green one…" Yanagi directed. Inui took the green one and opened the first page. To his surprise, he saw lots of ingredients written, along with their measurement and every detail. It's almost like a-

"A recipe?"

"Please make one for me."

Inui nodded at the request and made his way to the kitchen with eyes on the notebook. He noted that most of the ingredients were vegetables. Fortunately, his family had went to groceries shopping two days ago, thus the refrigerator had every ingredients prepared to be used.

Inui had cooked once before, when his mom was sick. Well, let's just say that his mom exempted him from cooking ever again.

His mom had to make an exception this time.

Hmm…two ons of radicchio. It was used to wake upthe senses. Make that three then. Inui put the ingredients into a boiling pot. Next is purslane. I'll add twice the ingredients to raise its effect. Then…

After some more chopping, shimmering (or in Inui's case, with maximum fire) and straining, the recipe turned into a juice.

Inui walked over to where Yanagi was. "Here's your medicine." He handled the glass to him, pride shone from his grin.

Yanagi stretched his arms slowly to take the glass. "Ah, thank you, Sada-" His arm stopped an inch from the glass.

"What's wrong, Renji?"

Yanagi didn't answer. No, more likely he couldn't. He could only stare at the green goo thingy inside the transparent glass that resembled a zombie's vomit. As long as Yanagi had made it, it was supposed to turn into an amber fluid liquid. How come that it turned into a complete opposite, it was beyond his thoughts.

Inui took the sudden stop of movement as another illness strike. "If that's the case, then I'll feed you, Renji."

Yanagi wanted to shake his head and tossed that thing as far away as possible. However, he hadn't recovered from his illness yet. Besides, refusing that thing would be rude to his friend, who had spent his time making it for him. Cold sweats dripped over his face.

"Open your mouth, Renji."

Urgh…Yanagi could only shut his eyes tight and prepared himself for whatever might come from that thing as Inui fed the contents into his throat.

"GHWWWWAAAAAKKKK!"

"Please remember to fix its taste, and not to make it resemble a vomit." Yanagi reminded, his face was dark at the memory back then.

"Despite its appearance-"

"It managed to cure my yips for eternity, is what you are going to say." Yanagi deducted. Inui remained silent and continued concocting the orders. Soon, Inui was finished making five container of the same concoction.

"Here you go, Inui Special Vegetable Juice." Inui handled Yanagi a black bag. "The blue one is the revised one, while the other three was similar to the one I made four years four months and fifteen days ago."

Yanagi accepted the bag. "I saw you making five of them." He asked.

"Ah, this?" Inui took the remaining container on his desk. "This one is going to be one of the ingredients for my next experiment. Do you want to wait and try it?"

"I'll pass." Yanagi answered a second too quick. "I suppose I shall make my leave now."

"Very well then." Inui followed Yanagi downstairs and to the front door. Yanagi planned on bidding farewell to Inui parents, had they been awake, so without further ado he went to the front door. He took his shoes from the rack and put them on. He opened the door and stepped outside.

"Sadaharu." Yanagi stopped, just by the door frame.

"Yes Renji."

"Come to my house when you have the chance. I will pay you back for this." He lifted the black bag slightly, motioning at it.

"I will." Inui assured.

Yanagi took another step outside before he stopped again.

"Oh," Yanagi took a deep breath. " Congratulations on winning the Kanto Regional Championship."

"…" Inui gaped at the unexpected greeting. He gave him a genuine smile, "Thank you, Renji."

Then the door was closed.

"I will have to prepare another notebook then." Inui noted in his mind as he made his way upstairs with a grin on his face.

How about it? Is it AU? Or perhaps OOC? I thought about a sequel to this. Of course, I will gladly write the ideas out if people are interested. Tell me what you think, okay? And don't forget to kindly mention any flaws in this one-shot. Till we meet again!