They call him Haru. Not Niou, not Masaharu, just Haru. Like a secret name, a code name which no one else will find out.
On a school morning, Niou is bustling around in the bathroom in his tennis ball jammies, brushing his teeth as loudly as he can to piss his sister (in the next room) off. His eyes fall upon something that belongs to her that shouldn't be in the bathroom but it is - and he grins wickedly, thinking of a certain someone, pocketing it. She won't miss it. She will, but he doesn't care.
The same school night, Niou draws on Akaya's face with the lipstick - because it was lipstick - after making sure he's asleep. Gen is too exhausted to do anything about it, because Niou wears him out beforehand like no one else can. Sometimes, Gen and Akaya envy Niou for his energy despite having so much stamina themselves, but they don't care that much, because the energy is all theirs - Niou is all theirs.
Gen mutters tiredly, "Why don't you go to sleep, Haru?"
Niou glances momentarily at him, wielding the stolen stick of his older sister's best lip-colour like a pen. "Aka-chan looks so pretty with lipstick, though. Look." He waves Sanada over from the corner that he's taken over - and even though Sanada doesn't want to, he moves over to them.
It was worth it. Akaya looks like a porcelain doll, with his pale, glowing complexion and red mouth. It's unbelievable, how Akaya slept through every heavy-handed stroke of Niou's - Niou, of course, is inexperienced with lipstick, seeing as he's also used it as Akaya's eyeshadow and rouge - so, is Akaya's deep sleep a testament to Niou's 'skills' in bed?
It doesn't matter. Sanada leans down to kiss Akaya's red lips once, twice - and then Niou grabs his face and pulls him in, because he isn't going to sleep tonight. No, sir.
In the morning, both of them meet with a horrifying sight - Devil Akaya with blood-red eyelids, cheeks and mouth, pacing the halls in search of Masaharu.
Sanada is left to deal with the consequences while Niou screams in mock-horror and locks himself into the bathroom to have a leisurely shower.
Not that it fazes him, because one word from Sanada can quieten Aka-chan in the time it takes for lightning to strike.
Niou emerges from the bathroom and goes into the kitchen (to grab some apples) to see Sanada kissing a calmed-down lipstick-less Aka-chan and hey, he wants in, so he takes Akaya by surprise and embraces him from behind while Kirihara takes full advantage of the absence of Sanada's black cap.
"I love you, fukubuchou," Akaya says, quiet and confident, admitting it for the first time. It isn't shy as much as subdued. But it's sincere.
"Where's my love confession, puri?"
An elbow in the stomach is Haru's answer.
Despite all evidence to the contrary, it is clear to everyone who knows about the three that Niou is who binds them - Niou is the red string.
Sanada is sometimes too harsh on Akaya - who gets annoyed so frequently by it. He laps up the words Sanada uses to drive him, because it's tennis and he's going to beat Sanada one day, but a relationship would have been impossible if Niou hadn't held out a hand to Akaya when he'd walked in on him and Gen kissing in the showers.
Sanada won't show it, but he has a soft spot for Akaya. They're not as close to each other as they are to Niou, but that's getting remedied by the day.
People often wonder if Akaya and Sanada are the chains that bind Niou and prevent him from spreading his wings, but Niou won't ever let that bullshit reach their ears - they're all stumbling enough, as it is.
And people will always talk shit about them - they have nothing else to do.
Niou waves the worn-down lipstick at Kirihara in bed, and as a result, he doesn't 'get any' that night.
Aka-chan takes his revenge by using up the rest of the lipstick on Niou's face. Some of it he applies on himself and then leaves open-mouthed kisses down Niou's body with as obscene a show he can pull off (Sanada ends up getting a red mouth by indirect contact with Akaya's - that is, he kisses over those marks because Niou deserves some torture).
Niou doesn't shower the next day, showing off the smudged lips-shaped marks on his bare torso to his teammates while changing in the locker rooms for as long as possible before Yukimura, with his gentle smile, goes to pinch a nipple (Niou runs away).
Akaya's furious blush and Sanada's sudden coughing fit go unnoticed. Actually, everyone notices but there is not a word spoken.
See, the thing is, nobody ends up getting the better of Niou Masaharu.
"Did you steal one of my lipsticks again?"
Niou tries to look innocent. But his sister has put up with him for years and years and she can see straight through the bullshit.
"I'm going to buy some for you," she decides. "Lipstick. Tell me your favourite shades and promise not to do this again."
So Niou tells her all the colours that look good on Kirihara.
Niou is supposed to see the world.
Sanada sometimes takes him into his arms and kisses him shyly because he doesn't have his cap on his head to hide his emotions.
Akaya pushes him up against the nearest wall and then pulls him down, because this is retribution for all the pranks Niou's played on him.
For some reason, Niou never turns into anyone when he's alone with either of them - but sometimes he... tests them by turning into Sanada before he nudges Kirihara into a cramped room in school and by turning into Akaya to seduce Sanada in the locker room showers.
There is no pass and fail in those tests. There is just kink and Niou is the king of kink.
Sanada's knees go weak, when on a Saturday night, Niou comes into his room wearing a skirt - and only a skirt - and sporting a coloured, abused mouth. The lipstick is dark pink this time - and Niou looks handsome. He doesn't look like a girl, he doesn't look feminine at all - he's just Niou in a skirt. The person who smudged lipstick in the general region of Haru's mouth saunters in a minute later. Sanada sits at his desk with a Biology textbook open in front of him, mute, paralysed.
"Puri," Niou says, annoyed. "Are you done with your revenge?"
Akaya laughs. "Yeah. Fukubuchou's expression is priceless. I'll let you go, then."
Niou makes to leave, but then:
"Who's letting you go?" Sanada says, feebly. Niou turns a shocked, enlightened gaze upon him; then smirks dirtily. "No one, Gen. No one."
Sanada stands up, and walks around the desk, to where Haru is standing, biting his lips. "Niou," he whispers. Akaya flops onto the bed to watch.
Niou arches his body towards him. Sanada wraps his arms around him and kisses him, not softly.
He can feel Niou's beauty mark under his lip. Damn, Niou looks handsome. Haru undoes the skirt with one hand, as Akaya settles in comfortably.
No one sleeps that night.
Sunday morning is full of restless energy, as Niou stumbles into the kitchen to make breakfast for everyone. They don't live together - Niou stays with his family, but Sanada and Akaya live close enough in the same neighbourhood to share homes. It's not like their families could have stopped them. Niou stops over every day.
It's Sanada's kitchen. Bare, hence spotless. Niou makes a face at the oat porridge mix in the cupboard and the goddamn protein shakes in the fridge. Who eats that sort of thing. Where's all his fries at.
So, he goes down to the grocery store while Gen and Aka-chan kiss sleepily in bed, and comes back with eggs, bread, tomatoes. There are other vegetables that Gen has in his fridge, and he uses them to make omelettes and buttered toast. He's not that good of a cook, but it's one of the many things his lovers know about him that others don't.
"Hey," he calls. "Breakfast's ready."
When they don't come down after ten minutes, Niou swears, because they're fucking; more importantly, they're fucking without him, so he covers the dishes with cellophane wrap, washes his hands and runs to the room they're in, throws the door wide open.
"How could you do this without me - " he begins, poised to give a full dramatic monologue, but then he sees that they're asleep. Just asleep, entwined with each other. Later, they're going to tell Niou how he exhausts them so, they're going to tell Niou they don't regret it at all.
Akaya stirs at the door slam. Amazing. He'd wake at that, but not at someone drawing forcefully on his face with a sorry excuse for a pen.
"C'mere," he says.
Niou answers, "Puri," and goes to the kitchen table to eat all three omelettes and six toast slices. Then he leaves the house to go on a run. Midway through his jogging, Yagyuu joins up with him - because he's kind of creepy like that, always knowing where Niou is every second of the day. Or, you know, he might have seen Niou running past his house and heard him call out, "Oi, Hiroshi!" because they always go for a run at the same time. Never mind.
"Is that lipstick on your face?"
Damn. He'd washed his face that morning. Not thoroughly enough, apparently.
"Maybe," he replies. Yagyuu snickers. "You look pretty for once." Niou shoves him into a trash can that comes across their path - or tries to, because Hiroshi, who is Niou's best friend and knows him very well, dodges.
"Bubblegum pink isn't really your colour, though. And did you think about covering up the hickeys that your t-shirt can't hide?"
Ah, that explains the scandalized looks from early-morning passersby. That, and the clearly visible bright pink lipstick.
"I don't look into mirrors," Niou says. He hasn't even broken into a sweat.
"Maybe you should start. Decide the lipstick colours which look good on you, before applying them."
"Stop being so helpful, Hiro, you know they were for Aka-chan but I ended up using all of them."
Hiroshi laughs. "Of course he'd make you wear lipstick. How did you piss him off?"
"Painted his face with some."
Yagyuu, shaking his head, comes slowly to a stop. "I haven't eaten yet," he says. "Can we go back?"
They're at least half a mile away from Yagyuu's house by now. Niou agrees, telling him, "If you'd come by this morning you could've eaten my omelettes."
"I'd rather not have your tasteless cooking."
Niou impersonates Yagyuu badly the entire way home, surprising (and scaring) many pedestrians, but bumps fists with him when they part all the same. When he reaches his own home, it's seven thirty in the morning, and Akaya is still asleep, probably. But Niou knows Sanada is up - he has his own rules to follow. When Niou enters the house, he finds Sanada sitting at the table and staring at the three empty dishes. So he wouldn't eat oat porridge or drink a protein shake either.
"Hi, Gen," he says.
Sanada looks at him. Niou admires the way the sunlight pouring through the windows illuminates the marble-sculpture quality of Gen's nose.
His hair is in disarray, too - and seeing someone usually so orderly in a mess like that makes Niou breathe in sharply.
"You ate my breakfast."
"You were asleep."
Genichirou gets up from the chair. "Haru - "
"We have more food, I can make some, puri."
He makes some more omelettes and buttered toast. They're better than the ones that he had made earlier this morning. Sanada wolfs them down hungrily, while Niou slips under the table and and spreads Gen's knees.
The fork drops from Gen's fingers. Oh god.
Oh, god.
He can't properly explain to Akaya how the tablecloth got such a large number of wrinkes in it - but Niou explains it in detail. With a full demonstration to Akaya, who is much more vocal about the 'experience' than Sanada. More wrinkles are added to the poor tablecloth. Gen guiltily irons them out later.
Niou doesn't put on lipstick for weeks after that day. Sanada and Kirihara mind, but they also don't mind. It's Niou's decision. He looks handsome regardless of his make-up choice, and it wasn't really for his looks that they fell for him.
And Kirihara's glad Niou isn't making him wear some, anyway. It was kind of embarrassing, though it looked really, really hot on Haru. Genichirou agrees.
Niou soon convinces himself that they desire him for him, and not for his lipstick-wearing tendencies - so on a fine Friday night, he slips into the bathroom with a bunch of sticks of different colours, and transversely streaks each one across his mouth. He's in a mischievous mood.
The look of pain on Sanada's face makes it all worth it. Akaya, who is studying for his exams somewhere in the house, doesn't get to see the work of art on Niou's lips, because Sanada licks it off them. It takes time. The lipstick is waterproof. But Niou's got all the time in the world for Sanada, Sanada with his marble-chiselled nose.
Of course, he's a wrecked, shivering mess by the time Gen's done, and he spends the night such that he can't get up to go to practice in the morning, hurting everywhere. Akaya peeps into their room, and sees Niou's red, no-lipstick-red, mouth, and thinks, damn it, missed it.
"Let's go for a drive," he declares, upon hearing which they stir.
"Yeah, I'll just call my chauffeur in a moment," Niou mumbles, turning over. "Why don't you see if yours is free, I heard he had to drive Atobe to Buckingham Palace."
"Fukubuchou can drive, can't he?"
Niou is then up in a flash. "Fukubuchou can?"
There are two things Sanada needs to do as soon as possible:
1. Stop Akaya from calling him Fukubuchou in bed, and
2. Stop Niou from ever finding out he can also drive motorbikes.
So Niou borrows his sister's car ("at least you're not stealing this, Masaharu, thank god") and tosses the keys to Sanada, who grudgingly gets into the driver's seat, because there is nothing he wouldn't do for the porcelain doll who slips in beside him and says, "Fukubuchou - "
Okay, getting around to doing number 1, here we go. "Don't call me that, Akaya."
"Gen - "
Niou interrupts. "Chop, chop!" he exclaims 'exasperatedly', with as much flair as he can manage, sprawled out on the back seat, legs wide apart and elbows hooked around the heads of the backrests. He's wearing huge aviators and generally acting like he's the shit.
Echizen could take a few lessons from him in attitude, probably.
"Now, then. Drive, puri," Niou commands.
Sanada starts the car after a glance backwards at Niou, who winks at him (although Sanada can't see it).
They weave through the city roads and get on to the highway. Niou's silvery-grey rattail hairstyle and all-round handsomeness gets him a few stares through the window while they're at it. Unless what Yagyuu talked about that day was right, and he has more visible hickeys on him than he can count at this moment. Sanada can be vigorous when he wants to be.
It isn't even funny, strange, or out of the ordinary when Niou, in the middle of a clear road and under a pale blue sky takes out the one thing that has had Kirihara and Sanada in chains, and applies it expertly without needing to consult a mirror.
Akaya looks back at him, and smiles when Niou makes a kissy face at him.
Niou loves lipstick. It makes him seem capable of such debauchery.
It's peaceful. They aren't talking. Nobody's saying anything. Rice fields fly by, and Niou tries not to look at the back of Sanada's head and shove a hand down his own shorts. Because he's worn neon blue shorts and a partly-unbuttoned white school shirt to this drive. Who cares. Gen and Aka-chan certainly don't, because they'd rather see him with his clothes off.
He ends up shoving the hand down the shorts. What. It's a clear road, anyway. Nobody can see it, because nobody's there to.
Sanada hears him gasping and moaning and parks the car by the side of the road. Niou laughs to himself because both of them are going to climb into the back, because it's going to be such. a. mess.
They fuck around together, all three, for a long time. There's no room for all of them side by side on the back seat when they're lying down. So they drag Niou, upright, into a corner, on someone's lap and in front of someone. They're both focused on Niou, running their hands up and down his body, under the white, beneath the blue, touching him lightly and then hard. Breathing hotly, because it feels so good. It's too cramped and stifling and hot and Niou loves it, loves them, so he tells them.
"I love you," he murmurs into Aka-chan's sweaty skin that he can see before him, whispers into Gen's ear that is on his shoulder.
Akaya comes all over Niou's chest on hearing that, and "Tarundoru," is all Sanada manages to say.
"It was your shirt," Haru tells Gen after a while, when he thinks Sanada has almost gone to sleep with his head on Haru's shoulder.
Sanada sighs, covering his face with Niou's hand. Akaya shamelessly grins.
They do it again. And then drive back home (Niou bends and twists into the space between the backseat and the driver's seat so no one sees him with a dirty shirt and two fingers in himself) to do it a third time. Then a fourth, hours later.
Niou stares at the cosmetics in his hand.
They do nothing, just clack against each other. Ten shades. Ten shades of different colours, his sister had bought for him.
He's done with them. He's used all of them, at least once. And now he doesn't want to use them again.
He looks in the mirror, and bites his lip.
He stows them away in the medicine cupboard, behind the tablets no one's used yet, but keeps the bubblegum pink one with him, the one that Yagyuu had said looked horrible on him - just in case he feels like drawing on Aka-chan again.