hit and miss, a prince of tennis fanfic

Fic written for the Pointless but Original Talking Forum Holiday Fic Exchange (2011).

Beta: KURABERRI

Request Number: 04

Fandoms: Eyeshield 21, Merlin, Prince of Tennis, Katekyoushi Hitman Reborn, Harry Potter, Final Fantasy VII/VIII

Pairing/Groups: Riku/Sena, Shin/Sena, Yamato/Sena, Merlin/Arthur, Gwaine/Merlin (unrequited, in which case Gwaine is the one pining), Sweet Pair, Thrill, Platinum, Trick-or-Treat, KiriAn, Solitaire, 1827, Remus/James, Remus/Sirius, Cloud/Zack, Cloud/Squall

Squicks/Turn Offs in Fic: None

What You'd Like to See in Fic: Angst, pining, fluff, slow seduction- but really, just anything with a happy ending that will make me smile

Gen/Het/Slash/Smut/None/All-of-the-above?: .All.

Request: [Romantic tag. Character A is in love with Character B, however, when he finally mans up and confesses, he gets rejected. But, A's awkward confession makes B start noticing him and B falls in love. Cue B asking A about A's feelings, which A denies having for fear of making things awkward. Again. (He may or may not actually still be in love with B, it could work either way) A and B play romantic tag either trying to gague each other's feelings (and consistently guessing wrongly) or falling in and out of love with each other at inopportune times. If you can somehow resolve their emotional constipation with an actual game of tag I will love you forever.]

A holiday message: Pretend there's this magical gap between the ending of PoT and the beginning of SPoT that lasts for about a year. This happens then.

Also. This is the third year in a row that I've written Sweet Pair for this forum's Secret Santa Exchange. lolol I have no regrets. I hope you enjoy it, even if it's a bit cheesy~

"Stay."

Shaking his head slowly, Jirou laughed. "Marui-kun, you're sick."

Marui groaned, pulling his covers up to his nose and sneezing. "But you're the only one that takes care of me!" He sniffed, "I can't trust half of my team inside my house, and I feel like Mura-buchou and Renji would just poison me. For fun! Plus, Sanada-fukubuchou would just sit here and lecture me the entire time!"

"What about your doubles partner?"

"Jackal is sick too." Marui shakes his head sadly, "And he's getting tended to by Akaya. Akaya. At this rate, he's going to die before he gets better."

Jirou laughs again, yawning. "But it's late out and I'm sleepy."

"Fine then. But first, you have to make me soup."

"What kind?" Jirou gets up from his chair beside Marui's bed and stretches.

Marui blows his nose and tosses the soiled tissue paper at Jirou, who dodges it with a cringe. "Miso."

"I don't know how to make miso soup," Jirou pouts. "I only know how to boil chicken soup out of a can."

"Then why did you ask what kind I wanted? Ah, whatever. There's canned miso soup too somewhere." Marui coughs, looking pointedly at Jirou. "Please?"

Jirou flicks Marui on the forehead. "Okay, fine. But then, I'm leaving."

Marui smiles, turning on his side and closing his eyes. "Love you, Jirou."

There is no answer.

Jirou puts down the soup carefully on the nightstand. He sits down on his chair again, crossing his hands on his lap.

And for once, he is not sleepy.

Marui's mouth twitches in his sleep, and Jirou grins. He leans over to tousle a lock of Marui's hair in between his fingers, and then his fingers trail down to Marui's nose. He touches the top of it, and grins wider when Marui grunts in his sleep.

And then he pinches Marui's nose. Hard.

Marui's limbs flail and almost hits Jirou in the face with a shriek akin to a little girl's. "Jirou!" He screams, holding his nose and glaring. "Not cool!"

Jirou grins brightly back at him, unable to stop giggling. "You weren't waking up." He says innocently. "I tried talking to you and like, everything."

"I bet you didn't." Marui spies the soup, grinning. "Now. gimme."

Laughing, Jirou picks up the bowl and holds the spoon out, "Say 'ah'."

"Ahhhh!" Marui gulps down the soup happily, smiling. "It tastes… plain. But thanks."

"You're welcome." Jirou yawns behind his hand, "And I really have to go now, Marui-kun! Atobe-kun is inviting me over for dinner tonight and I'm already late."

Marui pouts as he turns away from Jirou. "I thought you loved me more than Atobe."

"I love you more than anything in the world." Jirou says with a grin, before stopping abruptly. He quickly corrects himself, "As a friend, of course. Not like, actual lovers or anything. I mean, don't get me wrong Marui-kun, you're really handsome and all-like, really handsome-but I don't like you in that way. No."

"Are you okay?" Marui laughs, turning back around. "God, the way you're rambling makes it seem you actually like me."

Jirou opens his mouth to laugh, to deny it, to do anything; but nothing comes out of his mouth. His mouth somehow seem to get the message to twitch into a smile, but it doesn't stay for very long.

Marui licks his lips, his throat suddenly dry. "Do you like me, Jirou?"

"No, of course not-" Jirou's eyes stare downwards. "Yes."

"More than anything else in the world," Marui says softly.

Jirou bites his lip and nods.

Marui sighs, running a hand through his hair. "Look, Jirou. I-" he sits up straighter, licking his lips again. "I guess I just… never saw you that way. I mean. I don't know-"

"It's okay, Marui-kun." Jirou smiles weakly, "I get it. I'm going home."

"No, don't. I mean, you don't have to…" Marui's voice falters and he looks down. "Yeah. Bye, Jirou."

The door closes softly behind Jirou. Marui's not surprised; Jirou's the type to not storm out.

However, he wishes Jirou had shut the door. At least that way, he might have been able to miss the single sob Jirou let escape.

He reaches for his soup, and then takes a sip. He laughs bitterly after swallowing, pushing the bowl away.

"It tastes horrible."

He dials Jirou's number slowly and blows a bubble while the call connects.

And right as he hears the first ring, he slams the phone down. He takes a deep breath and stares at the phone.

Maybe he'll try again tomorrow.

It is not until three weeks later that they see each other again. Hyoutei is scheduled to have a practice match with Rikkai, and of course Atobe can't be bothered to leave his beautiful school so he brings Rikkai in on one of his very own private buses.

Needless to say, Rikkai almost destroys it.

Somewhere between Akaya storming down the aisles and Niou (or is it Yagyuu?) drawing on Sanada's cap while said fukubuchou is sleeping, Renji sits down in the empty seat next to Marui.

Marui looks up from his video game, a big green bubble on his lips.

"You're playing with Jackal against Akutagawa and Gakuto." Renji tells him calmly, clipboard poised in front of him.

Raising an eyebrow, Marui grabs the clipboard and scans it. "I thought Jirou was playing Singles 2."

Reji shrugs. "There's been a last minute change. Apparently, Oshitari wanted to challenge me." He takes the clipboard back, and stands up. Akaya whirs by excitedly behind him. "It doesn't matter. As long as you two win."

"Yeah," Marui frowns. "Win. Got it." He sticks his headphones in his ears, and closes his eyes.

Renji takes this all in silently, nodding to himself. He glances at Yukimura, who gives him a thumbs up.

The second they exit the bus and step into Hyoutei, Atobe's fangirls break into song. Rikkai is welcomed to the lyrics of "Welcome to Hyoutei/Atobe-sama will prevail/How were Nationals?/Atobe-sama is the best!"

Yukimura chuckles as Sanada burns with fury and Renji calmly leads the other members back on the bus. Soon enough, just as the chorus breaks into "Next time you come/Don't forget to bring tissues" Niou grabs Akaya and from the entryway of the bus, launches him like a cannon into the crowd of girls. This causes havoc everywhere, with girls screaming and running and then Yagyuu shoves Niou out of the way and shouts, "Hyoutei!"

Silence is eventually accomplished as the doubles pair part to show Renji standing there with his usual calm expression.

"Rikkai will prevail." He says simply, and Yukimura starts chuckling again. Beside him, Sanada sighs.

That's when Atobe arrives, entire Hyoutei team in tow. He looks equally as amused as Yukimura while Shishido grumbles behind him, "I told you that they'd do something back."

"Life is a show, Shishido." Atobe smirks as he snaps his fingers. The girls spread to make way for Rikkai to the tennis courts. "And it's just better when everyone is aware of it."

"I expect to have fun today, Atobe." Yukimura smiles as his team come back out of the bus.

Atobe laughs, "You mean you expect to win."

Yukimura smiles wider; his smile sends chills down the bystanders' spines. "Winning is fun." After this, he leads his team behind him down the path. Marui keeps his eyes down, sticking close to Jackal. Only when they are directly in front of the other team does he look up, and he finds himself staring straight into Jirou's wide eyes.

Jirou smiles stiffly at him.

Marui smiles stiffly back. Jackal nudges him with his elbow, and they keep walking.

"I feel like puking," he tells his doubles partner as they arrive at the courts.

Jackal winces. "I'll find you a bucket later."

As expected of a suddenly put together doubles team, Jirou and Gakuto lose 6 games to 3. After the match, Jirou smiles brightly at Marui. It is not the same smile that it used to be, but at least it's a smile. They shake hands.

"You were great, Marui-kun. You're really my idol!" Jirou grins.

Marui stammers for a bit, then laughs. "Thanks. " He hesitates for a second before he reaches to ruffle Jirou's hair. "You were good, too."

Later, Jackal grins at him. "Still need a bucket?"

Marui slaps Jackal lightly on the forehead, grinning. "Only one to shove your face into."

Letting out a frustrated scream, Marui rubs his temples and scoots his chair backwards. "I don't get it."

Jirou laughs from across the desk. "Math?"

"Yeah, math. Or more familiarly, the bane of my existence." Marui groans, pointing at his homework. "I mean like, just look at this! I'm not going to be a painter, so why do I have to know how to calculate how much paint I need to paint my house? And even if I did, I'd just buy another can whenever I needed one!"

"It's not that hard, Marui-kun." Jirou leans over the table to grab Marui's homework. "Let's see…" He concentrates on the numbers for a bit, furrowing his eyebrows together. After a couple seconds, he throws Marui's homework back to him and leans back in his chair in triumph, smiling. "It's three. Technically two and a half, but you can't really buy half a bucket of paint." He tilts his head. "Or at least, I don't think you can."

Marui's jaw drops.

"I'm good at math," Jirou shrugs. "You can check it if you want."

"You're a genius!" Marui exclaims, grabbing his homework. "How did you do that?"

Jirou laughs. "I told you, I'm just good at math." He yawns, "And if you do my Japanese homework for me, I'll finish your math homework."

Marui considers this for a moment before tossing his calculator at Jirou and blowing an enormous bubble. "Deal!" They switch papers hastily and silence is achieved for a few minutes before Marui hears something he hasn't heard in a long time.

Snores.

"Are you kidding me?" Marui laughs softly as he raises his head, seeing Jirou sprawled out over the desk. "It hasn't even been five minutes," he murmurs as he reaches over to turn Jirou's desk lamp off. As he's about to, he pauses to realize how pretty Jirou's hair is under the light. Just like a girl's, except wilder. Marui laughs and turns off the light.

When Jirou wakes up half an hour later, he finishes Marui's homework in twenty minutes and goes back to sleep.

"You're awful." Marui tells his sleeping figure as he watches Jirou sleep. "Who invites someone over to their house just to sleep the whole time?" When he gets no reply, Marui rolls his eyes and reaches over to get his math homework back. Instead, his fingers catch onto a chemistry assignment.

Well, he has always liked chemistry.

Jirou wakes up alone, in the dark, and kind of warm. He shakes the blanket off of his shoulders sleepily, and reaches for the light. On his desk in front of him lies all his homework already done for him, with a single gum wrapper on top.

He opens the gum wrapper and finds, much to his horror, an already chewed piece of gum.

"Marui-kun's disgusting," he laughs as he throws the gum away and brings his blanket back up to surround him. He then dreams of happy thoughts, big bears, and lots of strawberries.

It's a good night.

Marui notices three strange things about Jirou in the next week. They're strange because Marui's never noticed them before, even though now he realizes that they're so obvious.

The first is that Jirou has hair like a girl.

"Do you use girl shampoo?" Marui asks while the two rally at the street courts.

Jirou looks at him quizzically. "No. I use the shampoo Atobe-kun gave me."

"Oh." Marui grins, "So it's girl shampoo."

"Marui-kun! That's not nice!" Despite his efforts to frown, Jirou grins. "But why did you think I used girl shampoo?"

Marui finishes the point with his special move, and twirls his racquet around. "It's really soft, that's all. And shiny."

"But your hair is shiny too," Jirou says. "I just don't touch it as much as you touch mine."

"You can touch my hair too," Marui shrugs, "That is, if you can reach it."

"Marui-kun!"

Marui cackles, dancing around with his tennis racquet.

Jirou pouts, shaking his head in annoyance. "Just serve the ball! I'm going to win this match, and then make you buy me sweets!"

"Just try!" Marui shouts back, sticking his tongue out. He serves the ball, and when it comes back he sends it to the end of the baseline in the corner. He's already pumping his fist in triumph when Jirou suddenly dives for it, his shirt riding up to show a piece of smooth, toned stomach.

Soon enough, there's a ball whirring past him and Marui acts, but not fast enough because it goes straight into the net.

"I got a point," Jirou says with a grin as he flashes a peace sign at Marui.

"Yeah, you did." Marui says slowly.

Jirou laughs, "Marui-kun, your cheeks are the same colour as your hair!"

Marui turns even redder and he scrambles for word, "Well, red is the colour of victory!"

And apparently, also the colour of the waistband of Jirou's boxers. But Marui doesn't say that.

The second is that Jirou's surprisingly good at balancing.

It's not that much of a surprise though, once Marui thinks about it. After all, Jirou falls asleep everywhere. Sometimes even while standing. You had to have excellent balance to do that, right?

In any case, Marui find this out when he opens his door to find Jirou on his doorstep in the middle of winter.

"Mom? Final-" Marui stops as his eyes grow wide and Jirou shoves a present in his hand. "Jirou? You're not supposed to be here yet!"

"I came early!" Jirou replies happily before the present is given back and Jirou is pushed back quickly.

Marui hurriedly slams the door shut behind him. "You can't come in yet! It's not ready! Come in only when I invite you, okay? And no peeking through windows or anything! Turn around or something. Yeah, like that. And stay like that. Dance to stay warm, or something. It'll just be a few minutes, okay? Bye!" And with that, he quickly hurries back into his house and leaves Jirou standing with his back to the house, blinking bewilderedly.

Minutes later when Marui is trying to balance on his tippy toes to hang more tinsel on the tree, his mother slams the front door and screams his name.

"What?" Marui shouts back as he flings the last piece of tinsel awkwardly on the tree. "It'll do," he says under his breath before going to help his mother unload groceries.

"Your friend out there, Jirou." His mother looks at him strangely. "Is a very interesting boy."

Marui looks out the window to see Jirou doing some strange balance. "What's he doing?"

"Yoga." She replies, shaking her head. "Says he's bored since you locked him out."

"Well at least he's not actually dancing like I told him to-ah! Ah! Ahhh!" Marui shouts as Jirou starts wobbling from his tree position and bending backwards. It seems like Jirou is about to fall and smack his head against the pavement when suddenly, his movements stop solid.

Marui stares in shock as Jirou stands stock still on one leg as he's bent over ninety degrees backwards. Then Jirou does some strange kick-flip and lands on his hands. A split-second later, Jirou leaps upwards and holds onto his hands with a painful expression. "Marui-kun!" He shouts, and Marui strains to hear him through the window, "Your pavement hurts!"

"You're not supposed to look in here!" Marui shouts back, still in shock from what just happened. As Jirou turns back around, his mother sighs.

"A very interesting boy," she mutters.

Marui looks back out the window and laughs as Jirou starts making snow angels. "Indeed."

The third fact Marui learns about Jirou is the hardest to understand, and the most regretful one of all.

It is the fact that Jirou can make anyone fall in love with him.

Marui is just very late to the party.

Although he doesn't know when it started, he does know when he himself found out about it.

It is now, as Jirou looks up at him with rosy cheeks and bright eyes. In an effort to make Hyoutei and Rikkai be greater 'companions', they agreed to visit the New Year's shrine together.

In actuality, Marui believes that it's just a ploy from Yukimura to slowly kill his opponents. At this exact moment, Niou and Akaya are playing catch with Atobe's cell phone, and Yagyuu is angering Shishido to no end by winning endless amounts of things for Choutarou (who is having too much fun to be legal) and Jackal is… Jackal is by his side and carrying on a conversation with Kabaji that Marui can't even try to comprehend.

But all of this fades out as Jirou shivers in his fancy fur coat and Marui has to push down the unbearable urge to latch onto Jirou and never let go.

"Hey, Marui-kun. Are you okay?" Jirou asks innocently.

"I'm fine," Marui mumbles. "Do you want some goldfish?"

Jirou nods excitedly.

"I don't get it," Marui continues mumbling to himself as Jirou leaves him to find a goldfish fishing stall. "He looks like a gigantic cotton puff. Why now? Why do I suddenly like him now?"

Renji appears by his side, smiling slightly. "Actually, tests show that-"

Marui raises his hand to shush his teammate, shaking his hand. "Nevermind. I don't need to be confused any more than I already am by your big words."

Renji dutifully shuts up and gestures in Jirou's direction. Marui sighs and eventually trots off.

"How cute." Oshitari says as he stands closely next to Renji. "I didn't know that Marui-kun was one of those kinds."

"Don't touch me, please." Renji replies.

"It's the last net, Marui-kun! You have to get it for me!" Jirou shouts in an unnecessarily loud voice next to Marui.

"I got it, I got it!" Marui says anxiously, biting his lip. He squirms, holding his net above the aquarium. His eyes dart in front of him and he sighs. "Even though I could probably just swipe it with my hands, considering the owner's not even here."

Jirou smacked him lightly on the shoulder, laughing. "You can't do that! Plus, he'll be back soon. He said so!"

"Okay," Marui looks that moment at Jirou, and suddenly an idea strikes him. It is a horrible idea, but as Jirou gives him a curious look, he blurts it out anyway. "Hey. If I get the goldfish, will you come on a date with me?"

Jirou pauses before laughing again. "Oh, Marui-kun! What are you joking about?"

"But what if I'm not joking?"

"But you are." Jirou says quickly. "Because you wouldn't want that. And I wouldn't, either."

And I wouldn't, either.

Marui snaps his eyes back to the tank, and angrily swipes his net through the water. He raises it only moments later, about to throw down the net when he realizes that his net is strangely… heavy.

"You got one!" Jirou almost screams in his ear. "You got one!"

"I got one." Marui mutters.

Jirou looks at him worriedly, his smile stiff. "Marui-kun? Are you okay?"

"Of course not!" Marui snaps at him, before blinking. "I mean. Anyone would be, right? I spend four nets trying to carefully catch a stinking goldfish, and then the one time I don't care anymore, I get it! Isn't that just stupid?" He takes a careful look at Jirou's expression before waving the goldfish. "Hey, I get my date now, right?"

"Your… date?" Jirou stammers, his cheeks slowly paling.

Marui grins forcefully. "Of course! Oh wait, you didn't think we were actually going on a date date, right? Of course I meant one like where friends go to an arcade and mess around! A playdate, dude! Idiot!"

Jirou nods, slowly turning from stiff to nervous. "Oh yeah. Sorry. I thought you meant… nevermind."

"So?" Marui smiles. "Arcade playdate? You'll have to pay, though. Since I won this goldfish."

"Yeah." Jirou says quietly. "Sounds like fun."

"Good." Marui puts the goldfish in a small plastic bag and wonders why he feels like puking again.

As Marui sticks his tongue out in frustration and fiddles with the plastic gun, Jirou wonders why he's so intrigued by this game when in reality, he doesn't find video arcades fun at all.

The last time he went with Shishido, he fell right asleep.

But obviously it's different now, Jirou thinks as his eyes trail down from Marui's face to his fingers that punch and fly across the control settings.

But this is a playdate. A playdate.

Not a date date.

Jirou makes a small gun with his two fingers and fires it at Marui, making soft "pew pew" noises.

Marui notices, and pauses the game to look at him funnily.

"Love you." Jirou says quietly.

"What?" Marui yells above the noise. Beside them, some guy rocks out on the DDR machine.

Jirou smiles. "Nothing!"

Marui keeps playing his shooting game.

Jirou feels like shooting himself.

"I don't want beef." Jirou whines as he pushes the cart down the aisle. "I want pork!"

"My mom invited you over for nabe, and she likes beef so we're getting beef." Marui tosses a pack of sliced beef into the cart, wiggling his eyebrows. "Too bad!"

Jirou groans, and puts one foot on the edge of the cart and uses the other to propel him forward. "I thought your mom thought I was weird."

"No, she thinks you're 'interesting'." Marui says as he browses the vegetables. "Do you like cabbage?"

"Is there a difference?" Jirou wrinkles his nose. "And no. Ew."

Marui puts it into the cart anyway.

Sighing, Jirou pushes the cart towards the fruits section, playing with the scales before he turns back around. "Hey, does she like-" He stops when he doesn't see anyone. "Marui-kun?"

"Peekaboo." Marui says gleefully as he appears in front of the cart suddenly, throwing more cabbage in. "Cabbage for everyone!"

"I hate you." Jirou pouts, still somewhat amused.

Marui laughs. "Ah, but I love you."

"No you don't." Jirou grins, and Marui reads something in his eyes before Jirou leans forward over the cart and jabs Marui in the chest. "I'm bored. Tag, you're it."

Marui blinks; and Jirou is gone.

Taking the cart, he pushes it around until he spies a suspicious red tuft protruding from the carrot section. Stopping the cart, he sneaks up and grabs onto the red tuft, grinning. "Nice camouflage, but I caught you. You're it."

Jirou reaches up quickly just as Marui's about to dash and grabs onto Marui's collar. "Got you!"

"No fair!" Marui pushes Jirou's hand off, and walks to sit next to Jirou. "You didn't let me escape." He taps Jirou on the head. "It."

Jirou taps him on the knee.

Marui taps him on the nose.

"Don't say 'I love you' anymore," Jirou says quietly.

"I like you, then." Marui smiles. "Really, really like you."

Jirou snorts, "As a friend."

Marui hesitates. With a smile, he reaches up slowly to ruffle Jirou's hair. "No. Not as a friend. As a person I think is a genius at math and damn good at snow angels and able to make me feel things that I never really felt before. As a person I really, really like."

Jirou blinks.

"But that's the problem. You don't like me. Well, at least, not anymore. But don't worry, I don't give up easily." He stands up, stretching. "I'll make you like me again. After all, I'm the Marui Bunta. Tensai tennis specialist, most capable man on Rikkai!"

"You're really gross, Marui-kun." Jirou grins, standing up as well. "You give people gum you've already eaten and you have too much shooting other people and you like cabbage! So you're right, I don't like you."

Marui frowns. "Well, when you put it that way…"

"But I kind of love you. Maybe just a tiny bit." Jirou grins. "But only a tiny bit."

Marui laughs, his entire face going red.

"You're doing that thing again, Marui-kun. The whole red hair red face thing."

"Yeah well. You're doing it too."

"Cool."