It never ceased to amaze Eiji when someone would come up to him and ask if he and Oishi were a couple. "A couple!" he'd exclaim, a look somewhere between confusion and horror crossing his face, "How could we be a couple? He's like another brother to me, nya! Just, you know, one I get along with." The questioner would then apologize and beat a hasty retreat before he or she could be embarrassed any further.
Oishi would get the same questions, too, and usually from the same person about five minutes after they've asked Eiji. They'd both have a good laugh about it, share their mutual confusion over why everyone thought they were together, and then go on their merry way.
When the questions started to get more personal and more frequent, however, Eiji decided it was time to do something to stop the questions once and for all.
If Eiji was going to start seeing someone, he'd want it to be someone from the tennis club; likely a regular. He wanted someone who both understood his love of tennis, and could deal with him. It was with this in mind that he sat and gave this some serious thought. Well, as serious as Eiji could get about anything, anyway.
First thing off his list were any of the ichinen, even Ochibi. That was a little too close to dating his own children for his tastes. Next gone was Kaidou. Frankly, it didn't take much for the sophomore to scare him, even if he tried his best to cover that up. He considered Momo for a while before deciding that his wallet couldn't take the brunt of that one.
That left one of the third years. Obviously, Oishi wasn't even considered. He was the one he was trying to avoid in the first place. Tezuka was also gone; he'd really prefer seeing someone with an open personality. And while Taka was nice, and Fuji was his closest friend, he had his suspicions that the two of them were already together, which left just one person.
While Inui wasn't someone Eiji had spent a lot of time with outside of tennis, necessarily, no matter what angle he approached this from, he couldn't find an immediate reason to say no. All he had instead were a bunch of little things that he could, possibly, work around. For one thing, Inui was smart, sometimes frighteningly so, but Eiji could actually turn that to his advantage. It was always handy to have a private tutor that he didn't have to pay. And while the juices may be terrible, maybe...he could avoid them? Well, probably not, but at the very least he might be able to convince him to tone it down on the sadism, right?
Besides, Eiji had always kind of wanted to know a little more about their data specialist. Inui had always been something of an enigma, even to the rest of the team. No one really knew much about his family, or him, and it always seemed like he spent a lot of time in his house alone. And he had a sense of humor that, while all levels of odd, could actually be kind of...funny some times. Yeah...yeah!
The more Eiji thought about it, the more he started to get into the idea. He could see it! He could see himself being with Inui! It could be done! He let out a loud whoop with his newfound enthusiasm, which had his oldest brother stop in the doorway on the way to his own room in order to give Eiji an odd look before continuing on again. Eiji grinned rather sheepishly and whirled around into his seat before getting up and flopping into bed. He began plotting just what he'd do the next day as he laid there. He'd be really slick about it, too. Eiji would just...sidle up to Inui all inconspicuous-like, and tell him what he'd been thinking about. It'd be perfect.
The reality was far different from the fantasy.
By the time Eiji had gotten Inui alone, his nerves were absolutely shot. The only way to describe how he felt at the moment would have been like a blushing school girl confessing to that One Boy. Except in this case, Eiji was a blushing school boy confessing to that One Boy Whom He Kind Of Sort Of Thought He Could Get Along With Enough to Have a Relationship With. And Said Boy was currently staring at him half expectantly, half impassively. At least, Eiji thought Inui was looking at him. For all he knew, the other could have been looking at a squirrel, or their departing team members, or that satellite that was currently over Japan in its orbit around the Earth. Either way, looking at him or not, Eiji was nervous. Very nervous.
"...You wanted to talk to me about something?" Inui finally prompted, and that low voice (too low for a middle school student Eiji decided, in a fit of panic) caused the redhead to jump. Eiji looked up and nodded quickly before beginning to fidget. Inui opened his mouth again, and Eiji just knew some statistic or another was going to start coming out, and he decided to jump on it before Inui got a chance.
"Ano sa...Inui...It's just that I've been putting a lot of thought into it," twenty minutes, tops, "and I've finally decided to tell you that I think that you're a really interesting guy and it'd be really fun to get to know you better and I don't know why we've never hung out together more, I mean we've been on the same team since we started school here, but we've never taken the opportunity to get to know each other outside of the club and I guess what I'm trying to say is maybe, Inui, would you like to go out some time?" Eiji took a deep gasping breath before looking up at Inui, trying to gauge a reaction but found the task near to impossible.
Inui appeared to be staring at him (or that damn satellite again, that still panicky part of Eiji's brain chimed in), before the data collector cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. "Ah...mm. That's...mm." He adjusted his glasses again, shaking his head. "Riktsu ja nai...there...is a 92 chance that you are seeing Oishi..."
At this, the panic in Eiji's mind silenced to allow indignity take over (it was also secretly glad Inui hadn't fled). "Now, see here. Just why is it that everyone thinks Oishi and I are a couple? We're not a couple. We've never been a couple. We'll never be a couple. He and I are just really good friends, why is that so hard to understand, nya!" Eiji huffed and pouted, and crossed his arms over his chest, and Inui...Inui laughed, which caused him to pout more. "What is so funny?"
After he cleared his throat, Inui dropped his arms to his sides and shook his head. "I didn't mean to offend, Eiji. I was just slightly caught off guard by the question. Though, I'll admit...you had one of the highest probabilities of asking me this." Ahem. "It was still...not very high. As it stands...well..." and here Inui paused, and Eiji was sure Inui was going to say no, and then he was going to have to go home and cuddle Daigoro until he got over his embarrassment, but instead Inui tilted his chin up and leaned down to give him a quick kiss to the cheek. "I'd enjoy going out with you some time."
Eiji blinked, squinted at Inui, and when it didn't seem like he was lying, the redhead threw his fists into the air. "Yatta!" He proceeded to twirl around until Inui stilled him, and Eiji shyly took hold of Inui's hand, which he was pleased to discover surprised Inui a little bit, he just bet he was throwing his data all off, before he started to take the path toward his home. On the way, however, they ran into Horio who, upon noticing their joined hands, looked very, very confused.
"Ne, Eiji-sempai. ...Does Oishi-sempai know about this?"
Eiji shrieked and proceeded to chase the ichinen around the perimeter of the tennis courts.