Momo could handle a few 10 years old, no problem. Sure, they were a little loud, and fine, when he had walked past the room they were in they had all laughed for an unknown reason.

But when, even over the pounding of his CD player, he could clearly hear his little sister shriek 'Oh my god, but he is SOOOOOOOO hot!!' followed by squeals of agreement from her friends, he knew he had to bail.

"Which is why I'm here." Momo told an unimpressed Ryoma proudly, grinning as he held a rucksack that contained his overnight gear, and another bag which contained his tennis gear. Ryoma's eyes narrowed, and he went to shut the door, but Momo had predicted this, and stuck his foot in the way.

"C'mooooon, pleeeease?! It's like grabbing all of your fangirls and putting them in a confined place! It's hell!!" Ryoma ignored Momo's whining, and carried on slamming the door on his senpai's foot.

"No! Ow! Bad kouhai!"

"Ryoma? Whose that at the door?" Before Ryoma could answer, Momo yelled, "It's the boy who gives him a lift to school and protects him and tutors him! Your son is my best friend!"

Instinct told him Ryoma was glaring, and when his mother opened the door to allow Momo in, it was confirmed Momo still had fine instincts.

"So," Ryoma's mum began as Momo stood in the Echizen-hallway, "What brings you here? Come to sleepover?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned to her son, and told him, a scolding hint in her tone, "Really, you should have told me. I would have bought drinks."

Ryoma looked at Momo, then at his mother, and then walked away from them both and began to ascend the stairs.

"Ryoma, come back here!" Sulkily, Ryoma stalked back down the stairs. "Your friend is a guest, get him a drink." Momo stood nodding behind Ryoma's mum, tutting quietly.

Stiffly, Ryoma asked "Would you like a drink, Momo-senpai?"

Momo grinned. "A glass of orange juice would be nice. But I wouldn't mind getting it..."

"Nonsense," Ryoma's mum admonished lightly, "Ryoma, go get your guest some juice. I'll go prepare an extra futon." She turned and walked up the stairs, and Ryoma turned to Momo.

"I hate you, Momo-senpai."

Leaning forward, Momo asked slowly, "Are you sure you're not getting hate mixed up with love..?"

Ryoma looked at him some more.

Momo had always been impressed by how much could be portrayed by one of Ryoma's looks, though they were usually intended to tell people they were being stupid, so Momo had no idea why Ryoma was doing it right now.

"I'm sure."

"We'll see..." Momo reached forward and ruffled his kouhai's hair, ignoring his protests, before demanding, "Now, where is my orange juice?!"

Glaring up from the head-lock Momo now had the younger boy in, Ryoma mumbled something, wriggling around to try and find some sort of release.

Momo blinked. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. Up my where...?"

Ryoma glared, and smirking, Momo asked, "Where's your kitchen?"

Frowning, Ryoma pointed to the door to the left at the end of the corridor.

"Right." Momo walked and entered the room, the younger boy still held in his tight grip and still protesting.

When Momo released Ryoma, he stumbled forward, and turned to look at his senpai, surprised at his sudden release.

Momo pointed at the fridge. "Orange juice."

Ah, that was why...

Grumpily, Ryoma pulled out the carton and reached for a glass.

"Oh, ice too." Ryoma didn't even turn around, simply grabbed an orange from the bowl at the side and chucked it at the older boy, who caught it instinctively.

"Well, I would prefer it in its liquefied state..."

Growling, Ryoma pulled the orange out of Momo's hands and shoved the glass of orange juice in them instead.

Stalking out of the room, he didn't even bother to turn and glare when he heard his senpai's whine of, "No ice...?"

Momo followed the younger boy up the stairs and into his room, all the while continuing a stream of one-sided conversation that weighed up the disadvantages of having ice in your drink ("It makes your drink all watery, and sometimes restaurants put loads in and you barely get any of what you actually ordered."), with the advantages ("It keeps your drink cold!"). Overall, Momo summarised that he preferred his drink with ice in the summer, not so much in the winter, and as it was autumn he didn't really mind, though he was in the mood for ice today, but he could live without it.

By the time he was finished, Ryoma was setting up his PS2.

"Ohhh, video games! You are an ordinary kid!" Ryoma glared. "Though you hide it well." Momo conceded.

Ryoma waved flippantly in the direction of the platform, and told Momo to "entertain himself."

Momo pouted. "What about you?"

Ryoma ignored him and flopped onto his bed.

Huffing, Momo went to the boy's video game collection. 'Smash Court Tennis 2: Pro Tournament', 'Top Spin', 'Mario Tennis', 'Tennis Master Series'...

"I see a pattern..." Momo mumbled to himself, before turning to the younger boy and asking, "Hey, got anything not tennis-related?"

Ryoma glanced over to him, looking a bit thoughtful.

"Nope."

Momo looked outraged. "No Tekken?! No House of the Dead?!"

Ryoma ignored him.

Grumbling, Momo picked up the game that looked the most fun, (Mario Tennis) and began playing. He was actually getting quite into it, and was feeling tense from the match point his opponent had. Just as he prepared a smash, a ball of fluff leapt onto his face and Momo's character lost.

"What the hell?!" is what Momo wanted to say, only there was a lot of fluff in his mouth, so it came out as "Garf da pell?!?!"

Ryoma blinked up from his bed, where he was currently reading a comic, and smiled as he saw his cat attempt to smother his supposed best friend.

"Karupin!"

Okay, the kid sounded too happy, Momo decided as he attempted to detach the cat from his face. Why was he never greeted with, "Momo-senpai! -heart- -love- -affection-"?! Did he need to smother someone to gain his kouhai's love, 'cos he'd do it!

Momo managed to finally extract the cat, and he carelessly tossed him to the side and began spluttering out hair. "Momo-senpai!" Ah, the kid was saying his name again; though not laced in love, he still liked it when-

"OW!" Ryoma had smacked the back of his head.

"What's that for?!" Momo yelled, still attempting to get the last hairs out of his mouth. He glanced up, and saw a really pissed Ryoma.

"You threw my cat."

Momo glared and replied, "He tried to kill me!" He glanced at the cat, who was currently cleaning himself on Ryoma's bed. "He seems fine."

Ryoma glared. "You turn up at my house, you get me in trouble with my mum, you make me get you juice, you play my games and then you throw my cat!!"

"Just wait until you see what I have in store for you when the lights go out." Momo grinned, then saw Ryoma's expression.

Ohhhh, wrong thing to say. Very wrong thing to say.

"Heh, heh...kidding?"

"Get. Out."

"But, your mum-!"

"Screw my mum!"

Momo looked pensive. "I'd rather screw y-"

"GET! OUT!"

With a blush on his face which Momo thought was very cute, Ryoma tried to barge Momo out, and though the kid was fairly strong, Momo was stronger and taller and more built, so stood there and watched, amused, as Ryoma tried using his bed as leverage to push Momo out of his life forever.

Momo blinked as he felt something rub against his leg. He glanced down and saw Ryoma's cat rubbing his leg. Grinning, Momo side-stepped Ryoma, ignoring the fact the boy fell to the ground with a yelp, and stroked the cat, who Momo now decided was rather cute.

Ryoma glared from where he lay on the floor. "I hate you."

Momo wasn't sure whether he was talking to Momo himself or the cat, but he ignored him either way, and allowed the cat to walk into his lap, and rub against his t-shirt. Fluff was getting everywhere, but Momo didn't mind. Besides, the look Ryoma was giving them was sooo worth it. He looked rather miffed, probably at the betrayal of his own cat. How tragic.

After a few minutes of undivided attention to the cat, Momo turned and looked at Ryoma. The boy was sitting cross-legged, staring into space, away from Momo and Karupin. Smirking, Momo placed the cat to the side and, ignoring Karupin's whine of annoyance, shuffled over to Ryoma and hauled him into his lap.

Disregarding the surprised yelp the boy gave, Momo wrapped his arms around him and put his face in the crook of the boy's neck.

They sat like that for a while, which surprised Momo, as he was sure Ryoma would have pushed him off immediately. What didn't surprise Momo was the fact that only now was the blush beginning to recede from Ryoma's face.

"Hey, hey..." Momo whispered into the boy's ear, watching as the flush once again spread over the boy's neck "You getting jealous of a cat?"

Ryoma shifted slightly, and mumbled something in reply that Momo didn't catch, but it didn't matter.

They stayed like that until Ryoma's mum knocked on the bedroom door, and then Ryoma flew out of Momo's lap and threw himself onto his own bed, and when his mum came in and started talking about how she'd leant out their spare futon to her friend and didn't know what else to give them, Momo was grinning up at Ryoma who was pointedly avoiding any kind of eye-contact with him.

"It's okay." Momo piped up, and both Echizens turned to look at him.

"We can share the bed, sleep foot to head." Ryoma looked ready to protest, but his mum agreed and told them to head to bed because it was late.

When she left, Momo grinned at the boy who was finding his pyjamas. When he found a pair, he began to take of his shirt, before he froze and turned to Momo and looked at him. Momo kept grinning and reassured Ryoma by telling him "Don't stop on my account."

Glaring, Ryoma snapped, "Momo-senpai!"

Momo raised his hands in defence and mumbled, "Okay, okay..." and headed where he presumed the bathroom was to change into his own pyjamas. He headed back, and Ryoma went to the bathroom without a word, and Momo smirked and petted the cat until he returned. When he did, Momo watched amused as he approached the bed, paused, faltered slightly, wavered a bit on the spot before turning to Momo and saying, "My heads up here." and pointing.

Momo nodded and Ryoma turned off the light. Momo climbed into his side of the bed, near the edge while Ryoma was near the wall, and shuffled around until he was comfortable.

Showing amazing self-restraint, Momo did not tickle/molest Ryoma's feet at all, but he would have had to stretch anyway as Ryoma's feet only reached his chest.

Instead, he settled for a simple, "'Night, Echizen."

There was a pause before he was given a reply of, "'Night...Momo-senpai."

----

Three times, Momo woke up in the night. The first was because the damn cat had decided a good place to sleep was on his face, the second was when he realised his right leg were numb, and when he had thrown up the covers in an irrational, sleep-induced panic of 'is my leg still there?!', he had seen Ryoma clutching it, tightly. He really wished, just before he drifted of, that his leg wasn't devoid of feeling, because he'd really like the feeling of Ryoma clutching him, even if it was only his right leg.

The third time, he was barely awake, and just remembered seeing a peaceful expression on Ryoma's face; and he was sure the shock of it sent him straight back to sleep.

----

When Momo woke up he realised a few things.

Thing No.1- The sun was far too bright for his liking.

Thing No.2- The time was 10:30, they were quite late for practice already.

Thing No.3- Ryoma was lying on his chest.

It was a strange way to wake up; but not unpleasant. Not in the slightest.

He lay there for a few minutes, watching the boy's rhythmic breathing that pushed him up off his chest, and then down back onto it; before decided they had better get up and head over to practice ASAP, thus minimising the number of laps they had to run. Momo began to poke Ryoma, lightly at first, but then he remembered the boy was a heavy sleeper, so he began poking his head, hard.

"Mmmm...go away..." It took Ryoma a few minutes to actually wake up, and when he did he blinked down at Momo a few times, before his eyes widened in realisation and he gave a yell and threw himself of Momo for the second time in the last 24 hours and promptly landed, butt-first, on the floor.

Momo sniggered and poked his head over the side of the bed. "It's your fault, you must have moved in the night." Ryoma stared at the bed and realised this was true, but glared at Momo nonetheless for pointing it out.

"Oh, and we're late." Ryoma blinked and looked at the clock.

"Crap."

Momo nodded, and smiling, held his hands out to the boy, "Come back to bed?" Ryoma swatted his senpai's arms away and stood up, hand rubbing his sore butt. Momo grinned as he watched this, and Ryoma glared when he saw. "C'mon, get up."

Sighing, Momo realised he could no longer prolong the inevitable, and he hauled himself out of bed...and promptly fell flat on his face. Ryoma stared down at him, before Momo turned and glanced back at his legs, before turning and yelling accusingly at the younger boy, "You broke my leg!!"

"Eh!?" The boy looked confused, and Momo told him, "During the night, before you even moved on top of me, you had a pretty firm grip on my leg." Ryoma flushed, and shuffled round the room; avoiding Momo and collecting his tennis gear.

Momo, meanwhile, was more focused on the fact his right leg weren't working. Slowly, feeling began to come back in a very tingly and annoying manner, and even when he could move it he still had a limp.

They got ready, and walked leisurely to practice. Momo had left his bike at home, and besides, not only was he limping they were over 3 hours late. What did it matter if it was 3 and a half?

"Hmmmm..." Momo mused to himself, smirking down at the younger boy. "Slept over at your house, in the same bed, turn up hours late for practice, me limping...what are our senpai gonna think?" Momo grinned as he saw the colour drain from his kouhai's face. "If nothing else, it'll be interesting." Momo nodded resolutely.

Ryoma had stopped walking, and Momo turned and saw that he looked like he was battling with himself. "Screw it." Momo blinked as Ryoma began walking in the opposite direction of their school, and Momo turned and followed him, smirking.

"Arcade?" Ryoma nodded, and Momo decided it was his duty as a senpai to inform Ryoma that the arcade didn't really have tennis games, which earned him a whack from his kouhai, but it wasn't like it hurt. After that, they headed to the street-courts and beat the locals, and then hid in a bush when they saw Kaidoh on his daily evening jog.

It was dark by the time they returned to Ryoma's house. Momo collected his stuff and got ready to leave. Swinging his rucksack over one shoulder and his tennis gear over the other, he grinned at Ryoma who was leaning on the front door.

"Pick you up Monday?"

Ryoma looked at him, a blank expression on his face, and nodded, before glancing away. Waving, Momo set off, glancing behind when he reached the gate, and sniggering as Ryoma froze when Momo saw him still there, watching him, and promptly slammed the front door shut.

It had been a good day, Momo decided. And so had yesterday.

Momo didn't plan to tell Ryoma that his little brother was having his friends around next weekend, and they were often louder than little girls. He'd tell him at the time. And bring some catnip too, to suck up. And decent video games. And a camera too, so he could freeze the image of Ryoma sleeping; serene, relaxed expression on his face, and look at it when he questioned whether it had actually happened.

...and maybe for blackmail. But mostly for the other reason.