Title: That Green Eyed Monster
Summary: Yagyuu gets paired up with a swooning girl for his chemistry project and as Yagyuu begins spending more time with her, Niou begins to see that green eyed monster. Platinum. Fireplace challenge fic.
Word Count: 2710
Rating: T
Requirements: Must be over a thousand words. Must be a oneshot. Must contain a believable OC as the or a main character.
A/N: Another procrastinated Fireplace fic! Well, I got it up! Anyway, my first OC. I expected to do a long fic with my first one but this challenge was too good to pass up. Now, on with the fic!
Niou Masaharu was jealous. Everybody knew about him and Yagyuu, yet here was thismaniac who thought she could hang all over him. Well, he would teach her. He was going to dispose of her the first chance he got.
"Masaharu?" Yagyuu's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Huh?"
"This is Koyama-san. We're-"
"Koyama-chan." The girl corrected in a sweet voice. "I'm Koyama Miyuki. Yagyuu-kun and I are going to be chemistry partners for the next month or so." This statement seemed innocent enough, but her meaning was clear: I'm here for the next month, you can't get rid of me.
"Why does she have to eat lunch with us?" Niou asked. If she was going to take up Yagyuu's free time for the next month, he was going to make sure she got as little of it as possible.
"Because we're going to be partners for a month, I thought perhaps it would be good for you two to meet." Niou scoffed. Apparently, Yagyuu had killed whatever brain cells that ran the logical part of his brain. Though Niou had to admit that it was easier to target someone when you knew what they looked like.
"Fine," came his grumbled reply, despite the fact that he really had no choice. Besides, the way Yagyuu had said it conveyed that she would not be spending lunch with them every day. "But just for today." Yagyuu nodded in compliance to show that that was what he had anticipated, while Miyuki ignored him.
Together they sat in the shade of a large oak tree and ate lunch. They occasionally broke into small talk, which was mainly dominated by Miyuki, but for the most part the only noise was the birds, the leaves, and an occasional voice that the wind had carried over from another part of the school.
Lunch ended for the day and Niou Masaharu had never been so happy to attend class.
The next day, true to his word, Miyuki was not going to eat lunch with them.
But neither was Yagyuu. The two had been assigned a large project that involved the periodic table. They had to create a model of it and explain the system, as well as having to create a detailed web that involved linking all of the elemental reactions. From the looks of it, it was going to take a lot of hard work.
"So, I'll be aloneevery day for the next month?" The words came out stinging and bitter. Yagyuu gave him a somewhat apologetic look.
"Hopefully notevery day," he said. "But this project is going to take a lot of work and it's half of our grade for the semester." The tone in his voice indicated what Niou really did not want to hear: he was going to be alone while Yagyuu ran off to do a project with some girl.
"Whatever," he replied, trying to act nonchalantly. He had been watching Miyuki's expression through out the conversation and he was not going to give her the satisfaction of knowing he was upset.
Meanwhile, Miyuki gave him a look that seemed to say she was sorry, and made sure that Yagyuu saw it. "I'm so sorry, Niou-kun. I know how much time you two spend together and I honestly didn't mean to get in the way. It's just… this project is so important. Now," she said, turning to Yagyuu, "off to the library?" He nodded and as they retreated, she gave him a look over her shoulder that clearly read 'I've won'.
Niou growled, and made a vow. She had won this battle, but she had not won the war.
And he was determined to win the war.
Niou did not speak to his boyfriend until practice that night. Just as his behavior showed, Niou needed attention, and that was one of the reasons he had started dating the golf-playing gentleman – he had always given him his full attention. At the moment, however, part of his attention was focused on tennis and part of his attention was focused on that Koyama Miyuki, but very little of it was focused on Niou.
"Niou! Yagyuu!" their vice captain, Sanada, called them over.
"What?' Niou responded in a more irritated voice than he should have. Sanada flashed him a slight glare but let it go.
"Practice match with Marui and Jackal. Court three. Get going," was his order, and the pair did as they were told.
Now, on a normal day, the Yagyuu-Niou pair could wipe the court with the Marui-Kuwahara pair, 6-4, and on their best 6-2. But today – and yesterday for that matter – was not a normal day, and the first game went to the Marui-Kuwahara pair, as did the second. Niou wished he could blame everything on Yagyuu, but he wasn't playing up to par either. Still, he blamed that on Miyuki, so he could also blame Yagyuu for introducing her to him.
After the score was 4-0, Niou couldn't take it any more. The frustration of his boyfriend ditching him at lunch and the frustration of losing was taking its toll, and he served hard and fast, right at the back of Yagyuu's head. The ball made contact and Yagyuu tensed, but did not say anything – something strange, because had this happened on any other day, Yagyuu would have pulled him aside and asked him what was wrong. But perhaps Yagyuu knew. And so, Niou was given the ball again and served it, this time putting all of his power into the ball.
It hit Yagyuu square between the shoulder blades, and he tensed yet again. This time, Niou was aware of the glance that had been shared between Marui and Jackal.
Growling slightly, he handed them the ball and they served. There was a quick rally between Yagyuu and Marui, before Marui pulled out one of his tightrope net tricks. Yagyuu normally would have reached it, but his game was just too off today. The point went to Marui and Jackal, and when the ball was served again, it went directly to the back of the court. To Niou.
His frustration at everything had not nearly been drained before, and he took this opportunity to take out more of it. This time on his partner's shoulder.
He wasn't generally a power player, but today he had strength beyond compare. Aiming more carefully than he had all game, he smacked the ball right into Yagyuu's shoulder. The force of the impact caused Yagyuu to drop his racket and rub the sore spot. For Marui, that was the last straw.
He stormed over to where Niou stood on the court. "What the hell is up with you today?" he demanded angrily. Niou was about to respond with a "Nothing" when he spotted her, standing and chatting with a group of friends.
Jaw clenched, he shook his head, eyes still locked on her form. Marui followed his gaze and ended up right on her.
"Koyama Miyuki?" he asked. He wasn't sure exactly what she had to do with the situation at hand, but the look Niou was giving her… well, if looks could kill, she would have dropped dead minutes ago. "What did she do?"
Niou gave a forced nod before tearing his eyes away. He unclenched his jaw as best as he could and gave another very forced response. "She's… she's Hiro- Yagyuu's chem. partner."
Now, Marui Bunta was a tensai, but it definitely didn't take one to put two and two together. He had heard all about the huge project that had been assigned and about all of the time it was going to take up. Renji's partner was occupying a lot of his free time as well, but Marui knew that Yanagi was completely gay and he had nothing to fear about her. Marui also knew, however, that Niou could take no comfort in such things, because Yagyuu was half and half on the issue.
Sighing, Marui placed a hand on Niou's shoulder.
"Promise me you won't do anything drastic?"
Niou shook his head. He knew that was one promise he couldn't keep.
Yagyuu had not said a word to Niou after practice, for obvious reasons. This would have been fine, had he not started talking to Miyuki. The two had headed in the direction of Yagyuu's house, presumably to work on their project, while a fuming Niou headed home to work on a project of his own.
The moment he arrived, he locked himself in his room and began going through some old stuff. Box after box, he searched until he had a nice pile of items next to him.
He smirked and began stuffing things into his tennis bag. The first two battles of the war had gone to Koyama and her army, but General Niou knew that the third time was the charm.
Koyama Miyuki grinned slightly. She had gotten Yagyuu Hiroshi to agree to dedicate lunch to their project, and he had suggested that they meet after school at his house to continue their work.
And the sweetest part of her day had to be watching tennis practice. She had never really taken an interest in tennis before, but while she was watching that day she saw some things out of place. Like the fact that Niou had repeatedly hit Yagyuu with the ball. Hard. And while she didn't enjoy seeing Yagyuu get injured, knowing she had pissed off Niou made her earlier lunch victory all the most satisfying.
Yawning, Miyuki rested her head on her textbook. This project was stupid, but her goal of obtaining Yagyuu was not, and she would make sure she reached it. However, seeing as days one and two had gone so well, she decided to let her guard down, just a bit.
As she would soon find out, that was a very big mistake.
"K-Koyama-kun w-what h-h-happened?" the teacher asked her as she walked into her first class late. Normally a detention notice would have followed this question, but the state in which the girl had entered the room had left the teacher speechless.
Koyama Miyuki was a mess. No, being a mess was an understatement. She was sopping, despite the near-perfect weather. Part of her long, brown hair appeared to have been dyed blue and it was later revealed to be covered in blue paint. There was a large scrape across her right arm and blood was still trickling from it. To top it off, her sopping school uniform looked like a bird had decided to attempt to make a nest in it.
"I fell," she replied calmly and bowed. "I'm sorry I'm late, sensei," she said and took her seat. The bewildered teacher merely nodded and went back to giving the morning announcements.
By fifth period, Miyuki looked comparatively better. She was drying off at a fast rate, and her scrape had begun to scab over. Not to mention the twigs had begun to fall off. However, she was still a wreck from the norm, and Yagyuu could tell so the second he entered the room.
"What happened?" he asked. Or rather, who happened, though Yagyuu knew the answer all too well.
"Well," she began, seemingly contemplating as to whether or not she should tell. She decided against it. "I fell." Yagyuu raised an eyebrow and was about to respond when the teacher walked through the door and they were forced to resume work on their projects.
Niou grinned as he saw Yagyuu heading towards him, lunch in hand, and unaccompanied. The prospect of eating with his boyfriend was more than enough to make him grin any day, but today it would be particularly sweet, especially after the state of Miyuki this morning.
However, his hope for a happy lunch nearly disappeared as soon as Yagyuu approached closer. There was a disappointed look plastered on his face, yet he took his usual seat across from Niou.
They were quiet for a moment and time seemed to freeze, as a thick tension settled over them. Then…
"You shouldn't have done that to Koyama-san."
A snort.
"Why not? And I guess she told you?'
"Masaharu, it honestly wasn't funny, you could have hurt her. And no, she didn't tell me, but I've got a set of eyes and I'm positive that whatever you did to her was dangerous." Niou nearly let out another snort, but held it back. If Yagyuu had thought that today was bad, he should take a look at tomorrows battle plans. Today was only the beginning of it.
"What's in it for me?" Despite the situation, trying to bargain with his boyfriend was something he couldn't resist. Yagyuu sighed.
"Is that all you ever think about, Masaharu?" Yagyuu stood and began to walk away. "Yourself?"
Practice that day was tense again, and this time Niou's actions were not unnoticed by Sanada, who assigned him an uncountable number of laps.
Just like the day before, Niou and Yagyuu parted without speaking, while Miyuki joined Yagyuu at his house.
This cycle continued for the next two weeks. Only this time, Yagyuu did not come to have lunch – he did not even walk by. Practices were painfully long, and the nights after them even longer for they were spent planning, planning, and worrying.
Miyuki had already sprained her left ankle because of Niou. Niou, in turn, had a nice set of bruises on his shins and calves.
One day, Miyuki had walked in smelling like manure and rotten eggs. The next, Niou had showed up to school covered in bee stings and with a yellowish tint to his hair.
It was only a matter of time until something extremely serious happened.
And later that day, something did.
Koyama Miyuki fainted during class. The school nurse had assured everybody that her collapse was the result of stress and a lack of sleep before the girl had come around and Yagyuu had offered to escort her home.
Everybody else had assumed that he was escorting her, because of his manners and the fact that he was a gentleman, but Niou knew better. He knew that Yagyuu wouldn't have done this for just anybody. He was doing it now, because he blamed himself. Niou sighed – the boy really was too good.
Far too good. His escorting her home started up something more painful for Niou than anything Miyuki had done to him so far. It started up a rumor that he and she were together.
And this rumor was spread by a quickly published article in the school paper.
Niou fumed outwardly, but inside he wanted to break down. He had read the article about Yagyuu and Miyuki in the gossip column, and it had hurt him, both physically and emotionally.
And so, he was going to have a talk with Yagyuu. He stood on the other boys doorstep and pressed the glowing, rectangular button repeatedly until the door was opened. Then he kicked off his shoes, shoved the cut-out article into Yagyuu's hand, and thumped down on the couch, head bowed. Yagyuu sat down on the stop next to the silver-haired boy. He quickly read the article in his hands before looking up at Niou. After a long silence, the trickster spoke.
"Is it true?"
Yagyuu shook his head. He had been afraid that something like this would happen and now it had.
"No," her murmured. "We're just fr-"
"How do I know?" Niou cut him off. Yagyuu mentally sighed.
"Masaharu, I-"
"I don't know." He looked the gentleman straight in the eyes. "I've been lied to my entire life by people, how do I know you're not any different?" Niou's words were like a slap across the face.
"Masaharu, I swear to you, she and I are just friends."
"Oh yeah?" The doubting in his voice was painful. "And why should I believe you? You still haven't given me a reason." Every word said hurt more than the last.
So, Yagyuu Hiroshi did the only thing he could think of. He tilted the trickster's face up and bent in close. Then, before Niou could utter another scathing remark, Yagyuu kissed him – long, deep, and passionate.
"Proof enough for you?"
Niou nodded numbly.
OWARI