Disclaimer: I own Yoshirou and Daiki.

A/N: Still in the Universe of Punishable Puns. I doubt this interests anybody but me, but it was fun to write nevertheless. Atobe Daiki and Amane Yoshirou, in their second year of middle school.


Astronomy 101


Atobe Daiki was, it sometimes appeared, the centre of the entire universe.

At least, Daiki himself seemed to be under such an impression. Amana Yoshirou, however, had made it his personal mission to prove him wrong. Not everything revolved around their captain even if the whole tennis club and half of the rest of the school did.

Of course, Yoshirou had somewhat better chances at managing at this than anybody else, as Daiki was less likely to refuse to talk to him for a disrespectful comment. They had been friends ever since their first day at elementary school, when Yoshirou had disagreed with Daiki, fought with him, and ended up being invited over to Daiki's home. Since then the palace the Atobe family called home had become quite familiar to him, enough so that now, in the age of fourteen, he had little reservations about simply marching in and asking for Daiki from the closest person he could find.

"Ah, Amane-kun," Daiki's father said as he walked past and spotted their young guest questioning a maid. "Ore-sama believes ore-sama's son is at the pool. Is there something in particular you wanted to talk to him about, or is this just a leisurely visit?"

"Just visiting, Keigo-san," Yoshirou replied, nodding his greeting to the man. Atobe Keigo was the same as usual, he noted – not that he would have ever expected anything else. Daiki's father had been 'ore-sama' ever since the first time Yoshirou had met him and was yet to fail to be so. The worst thing was, it seemed to be hereditary.

"Yoshirou!" Daiki greeted him as Yoshirou arrived to the main pool of the house. The grey-haired boy was simply floating in the pool, apparently not bothering to swim. "Ore-sama didn't know to expect you. You should have called beforehand!"

"I thought a little surprise every now and then would be healthy for you," Yoshirou replied with a grin. "Or is it a bad time for me to visit?"

"Oh, not at all." Daiki quickly made his way to the side of the pool. "Pull ore-sama up."

Yoshirou took a hold of the outreached hands, not bothering to ask why Daiki didn't simply use the ladder. Instead, he obediently pulled the other boy out of the water, not surprised to see that a servant already had a towel ready. He already knew better than well how things worked in this household.

"What should we do?" asked Daiki, drying his hair with the towel and paying little mind to the servants who were already bringing drinks and snacks for the young master and his guest. "Anything but tennis, is ore-sama's suggestion. With no offense to our favourite sport, ore-sama somehow doesn't feel up to any practice today."

Yoshirou laughed at that. "I guess not," he said. "We didn't do too badly, though, did we?"

Daiki snorted. "You could say that, indeed."

Their second National tournament had ended just as spectacularly as the first one. Championship could indeed be described as "not too bad". On top of this, Yoshirou and Daiki were nowadays rumoured to be the best doubles team on middle school level, and they were willing to prove it to anybody foolish enough to challenge them.

Now, though, it wasn't the time for tennis. It was a Sunday and summer holiday on top of that, with absolutely no practice planned. Sure, Yoshirou had gone running in the morning, but that didn't count – it was simply a part of his morning routine, like some would view brushing their teeth. Therefore, as the two boys enjoyed the snacks served to them, they did their best to talk of anything but the game.

"Ore-sama thinks Oshitari has a thing for Shishido," Daiki said suddenly. So suddenly, in fact, that Yoshirou almost inhaled his soda.

"Huh? Oshitari?" he asked, eyes wide. "And... which Shishido?"

"Ryuji-kun, ore-sama believes." Daiki snorted. "A peculiar taste, but to each their own, presumably. Ore-sama personally has no affection for such a meek personality."

"I'm sure Ryuji-kun would be relieved to hear that," Yoshirou deadpanned. He then grinned at the glare he received from his best friend. "Hey, it's a joke, just a joke! What about it, though?" he then asked. "Are you going to try matchmaking or something?"

"Heavens, no." Daiki drew the fingers of one hand lazily through his hair. "Ore-sama would not stoop as low as to meddle with such things. Ore-sama merely wonders what kind of an effect it will have on their playing."

"What kind of an effect could it have?" Yoshirou asked reasonably. "Oshitari's playing singles, the Shishido brothers play doubles. Getting better by trying to show off to each other is the only way such an affection could affect their game." He chuckled, receiving another glare from Daiki.

"Even your wits seem to have taken a vacation, ore-sama notices. That was even worse than your usual attempts at jokes."

"You know you love me anyway," Yoshirou replied with a cheerful grin.

"Keep dreaming," was Daiki's simple response as he sipped some more of his soda. However, Yoshirou was fairly sure he was hiding a smirk of his own behind the glass.

"So, what are we going to do?" Daiki asked after some more time of talking and snacks. "You didn't bring your swimming trunks, did you?"

"I'm afraid not," Yoshirou replied, most definitely not looking at his friend's apparently endless legs. Daiki had by now pulled a light shirt, which didn't change the fact there was nothing but his swimming trunks to cover his lower body. "It would be a great day for the pool, though."

"Oh, well. You and ore-sama are a close enough fit that you can borrow some of ore-sama's. It's not like you haven't done it before, anyway."

Yoshirou had to admit this was the case. Spur-of-the-moment swimming sessions occurred fairly more often than the visits on which Yoshirou actually had taken his own swimming trunks along. He blamed it on his daddy, who had raised him to be practically a half-fish.

Soon enough they were both clad only in swimwear, heading back towards the pool from Daiki's room. The few servants they passed on their way all bowed politely, none appearing to wonder about their attire. Back at the pool some more soda was left waiting for them, along with juice, water, and iced tea. There were few better places to spend time on a hot day than the Atobe palace.

Daiki walked right to the side of the pool and made a graceful dive into the water. Yoshirou followed suit. Once he got back to the surface, though, he was surprised by a vicious spray of water right on his face.

"A waterfight, eh?" he asked with a grin. Daiki rarely initiated things such as this, but Yoshirou very much enjoyed it when he did. "If that's what you want..."

Soon enough they were both lost in splashing the water around, each trying to create a larger wave to hit the other with, as though it would have mattered in some way when they were both soaked already. Daiki's hair curled adorably at the ends when it was wet, though it was still far from Yoshirou's curls. Not that it mattered, anyway – wet as they were now, both of their hair simply kept gluing itself to their faces, necks, and shoulders.

Finally they decided to take a break. The waterfight had ended up being rather long-drawn, neither giving in as long as they still had the strength to fight. As both had considerable stamina for their age, it hadn't happened easily. Now, though, both were just floating in the pool, looking up to the blindingly blue sky.

"This time next year, we will have finished the last National tournament of our middle school time," Yoshirou said musingly. "Kind of strange when you think of it, eh?"

"Somewhat, yes," Daiki admitted. "Have no worry, though. We shall definitely awe people with our prowess even after that. Ore-sama isn't about to stop playing at that."

"Hey, not everything is about you, Daiki-sama," laughed Yoshirou teasingly, pushing his feet down to float in a standing position so he could grin at Daiki. Somehow, his hand made its way to tangle with the dark grey hair floating around in the water. Then, with a considerably warmer tone, he added, "Only the important things are."

Daiki smiled, then, a real smile instead of his usual smirk, and Yoshirou was fairly sure his heart skipped a beat. Well, damn.

Atobe Daiki was perhaps not the centre of the entire universe, but at least he managed quite well at being the centre of Yoshirou's world.