Summary: Everyone knows cats have a fear of water, so why wouldn't Eiji have the same fear? Eiji had always avoided swimming, and never learned, so what happens when the one time he needed to swim, he can't?
This is only a small short fic which will probably only have a few more chapters, but I really like Eiji and Oishi so I decided to have some friendship (only friendship :P) between them. Or maybe it's better as a one-shot…hmmm.
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Eiji's brush with death
With a quick leap, Eiji landed beside the sturdy door, almost jumping down in excitement. Quickly, he knocked on the door, before knocking on it again and again in a quick and rapid movement, hoping his knocks would make Oishi to come to the door quicker.
"Yes, yes," The faint voice of Oishi could be heard before the door opened.
"How'd I guess it would be you?" Oishi spoke dryly, but with a pleased smile.
"Oishi!" Eiji yelled in excitement before jumping on Oishi and hugged him enthusiastically.
"It's nice to see you too," Oishi laughed as he positioned himself so he wouldn't fall over while keeping a steady hand on Eiji who grinned mischievously at him.
Hey, are you busy?" Eiji quickly asked as he jumped on his heels and rocked back and forth.
"I was just doing my homework," Oishi said with a shrug. Eiji beamed.
"Great, you can do that later!" Eiji said before strolling into Oishi's house.
"A-Ah," Oishi managed to say as he closed the door and followed Eiji. "I Suppose…"
"Don't worry nya! You always try to complete the homework as soon as we get it. You still have loads of time," Eiji convinced. Well, that was true, Oishi admitted as he relaxed his shoulders in defeat and gave Eiji an affectionate smile.
"What did you have in mind then?" Oishi gave in. Eiji paused.
"Ahh! I hadn't thought that far…" Eiji laughed as he scratched his head.
"How about we do something outside? It's a nice day today," Oishi suggested. Eiji blinked thoughtfully before nodding his head.
"Okay! Let's do that!" Off course, Eiji being Eiji ran right ahead regardless of the fact that he was in someone else's house and zipped past Oishi's mum with a quick greeting who stared after him in shock. Oishi followed, giving his mother an apologetic smile.
"Hoi Hoi!" Eiji exclaimed as he ran outside, and did one of his acrobatic moves in his freedom before turning back to Oishi.
"Oishi! Don't just stand there!" Eiji said with a grin before flopping down on the grass and stared up at the sky with a pleasant and satisfied look. A moment later, Eiji heard footsteps come closer, then Oishi was next to him in the same position as he was.
"Hey Oishi, we should hang out tomorrow, what do you think?" Eiji questioned. Oishi made a little noise.
"Tomorrow? We haven't even started doing anything today," Oishi protested with a small laugh.
"Then we should gather all the regulars and go on a trip somewhere!" Eiji said with excitement. "For…uh… team bonding!" Eiji nodded enthusiastically. Oishi smiled.
"Yeah, why not! It could be fun… though I'm probably going to have to use a better excuse to get Tezuka to come," Oishi said, catching on to the same excitement his partner was showing.
"Yay!" Eiji yelled out as he jumped on Oishi with glee.
"E-eiji," Oishi managed to say before getting a mischievous look in his eye and quickly grabbed Eiji and made him tumble to the ground, much to his surprise and started to tickle him in the stomach. Eiji squirmed as laughter burst out of him.
"O-Oishi!" Eiji laughed hysterically, as he tried to wriggle away from Eiji who seemed entirely too pleased with himself.
"Yield!" Oishi asked with a determined look. Eiji continued to laugh before nodding quickly. Oishi just laughed back and ruffled Eiji's hair who looked at him with a light scowl.
"Nya! Oishi, your so mean," Eiji said as he protected his stomach. Oishi laughed as he put his hands up.
"Don't worry, I won't tickle you for a while," Oishi grinned lightly.
"Shuichiro! Phone call!" Oishi's mum called out. Oishi jumped up startled before looking back down at Eiji.
"I'll be back in a few minutes. Will you be fine?" Oishi asked. Eiji gave him the piece sign.
"Of course! Take as much time as you need!" Eiji said with a grin. Oishi nodded and Eiji watched as he walked inside to the kitchen before looking away.
"What to do… what to do…" Eiji muttered as he peered around Oishi's backyard. It wasn't long before he spotted a tennis ball on the ground near the gardens. With renewed enthusiasm, Eiji jumped up and ran over to the ball where he then picked it up and tossed it around a bit.
Eiji thought for a moment before he dropped the ball and kicked it up in the air. Unfortunately, his aim was terrible and Eiji could only watch dumbfounded as it bounced into the pool.
"…Uh oh…." Eiji said to himself as he stared at the tennis ball with dismay. Standing still with indecision, he glanced towards the house where Oishi was still on the phone in the kitchen before glancing over to the ball. An anxious feeling came over him before Eiji shrugged it off stubbornly and opened the gate before walking in.
"It's a just a bit of water," Eiji muttered. "And it's just a ball. What's the worst that could happen?" Off course Eiji whacked himself over the head quickly. No need jinxing himself.
Hurriedly wanting to get this over with, Eiji crouched at the side of the pool closest to where the ball bobbed up and stretched his arm towards it.
"Just a little more," Eiji stressed as he tried to stretch out his arm further and reach the tennis ball bobbing up and down tauntingly only mere centimetres away. He realised how close to the water he was, but he was fairly confident that unless he wanted to, he wouldn't fall in. He was, after all, very good at acrobatics and being clumsy was one thing that Eiji wasn't.
"Come on!" Eiji breathed out with determination. After a few seconds of perseverance, Eij's fingers managed to touch the side of the ball but unfortunately, all he managed to do was make it spin in circles as it was still too far away for Eiji to grasp at properly.
"How annoying," Eiji managed to make the ball spin a little more before a small gust of wind blew straight past Eiji and the ball.
"No!" Eiji yelped as the ball floated further away. In a frantic motion, Eiji made one last fervent attempt to get the ball and unfortunately as he leaned over further, his balance became unstable. It took only a second for Eiji to realise and immediately, he tried to backpedal but he was too far forward and ended up crashing into the pool alongside the ball.
Panic struck Eiji immediately as the cold watery sensation hit him and frantically waved his arms about to get above the water where he could breath. He did gain that small success and he fearfully gasped in oxygen.
"O-Oishi!" Eiji struggled out as he flailed about in the water. He was too far away from the edge to be able to get out and he couldn't touch the bottom of the pool. In short, the only thing that could save himself would be to swim… which was something Eiji couldn't do.
"Oishi!" Eiji coughed out right before his head once again went underwater. His struggling intensified as reality struck him with full force. If Oishi didn't come out, he would drown. He just had to hold on until Oishi came out.
Unfortunately, thinking that and doing that were two completely different things. Again, Eiji managed to reach to the top of the water and cough out some water which he had taken in, but didn't have time to breath in air before he was once again sinking.
His lungs were starting to burn, the need to breath was getting stronger and stronger and faintly, Eiji realised that his whole body was tired. That wasn't possible, Eiji thought numbly. With how much training he did for tennis, in mere minutes, his body was that exhausted?
Not able to ponder anymore, it was then Eiji realized that he was so tired that he could fall asleep.
'No,' Eiji's mind protested. Oishi and he still hadn't gone to the national tournament yet. He couldn't break his promise... not when their dream felt so close. Faintly, Eiji opened his eyes which he hadn't even realized he had closed and got a faint jolt when he noticed a faint blurry figure running towards him.
His mind took a little too long to remember who it was.
'Oishi,' His mind numbly supplied. Eiji relaxed his body, almost subconsciously. Oishi would definitely save him.
What felt like a second later, the water became slightly rockier and distorted. A very faint moment of shock caused him to open his eyes and faintly stare in front of him. Although, the figure was still blurry, Eiji felt like he could see Oishi perfectly.
The determination and the horrified fear that burned in Oishi's eyes were completely startling, although with all things considered, Eiji should have expected it. Eyes drifting shut, Eiji's mind turned towards the need to breath. It was the most painful and uncomfortable thing Eiji had ever experienced. His mind was drifting away; along with the realization that so was the need to breath.
Then something warm and firm was across his chest in a heartbeat. It felt like he was miles away on a trip through the clouds... then he broke through the surface.
"Eiji!" The voice echoed through Eiji and a second later, coughs so forceful started racking out of his body, ejecting the water which he had swallowed as well. For a few seconds, Eiji was overwhelmed with that feeling, but as they died down a little, Eiji could now feel the arms around his chest and that his head was lying limply on Oishi's shoulder.
"Eiji!" The relief and worry in Oishi's voice was startling, yet Eiji couldn't bring himself to respond with his body aching completely all over and with the gasping breathes that was flying out of his mouth. Moments later, Eiji could feel that Oishi was moving across the water.
"Eiji, you're going to be okay," Oishi's voice shook slightly. "I'm going to get you out of this pool, then you're going to wake up and everything's going to be fine," It briefly occurred to Eiji that those words were probably more for Oishi himself than they were to him.
They stopped briefly as Oishi moved positions so Eiji's head was lying on his arm as he gripped Eiji's shoulder and the other went underneath his legs. With hurried footsteps Oishi had picked Eiji up and brought them out of the dreaded pool. It was only when they were completely out of the pool did Eiji realise that there had been a complete fear overwhelming his body and not allowing him to move or speak to Oishi when they were in the pool.
Oishi gently lay him on the ground and Eiji could almost feel him worry fretfully. Although, his body ached completely, Eiji finally manage to blink his eyes open and blearily look at Oishi who looked like he had seen better days. His face was completely pale, water dripping from his body and the expression on his face was heartbreaking.
"Eiji?" The hope and lingering fear was still imminent in Oishi's voice. "Eiji!"
"Hoi…hoi," Eiji rasped out, coughing slightly as he did so but kept his eyes on Oishi who after a second, Eiji noticed faint tears sliding down from his face.
"Oishi…" Eiji murmured. The only time he had ever seen Oishi cry was when they won the Kanto tournament and then, it had been happy tears. This time…
Eiji struggled to sit up, but once he did, Oishi grabbed him and pulled him into a tight hug, shocking Eiji. He couldn't ever remember a time where it was Oishi initiating the hug and not himself.
"Damn it Eiji, do you know how I felt as I saw you in the water, not moving?" Oishi's voice shook. "I thought... I thought I was going to be too late," The honesty in his voice was surprisingly vulnerable. "Don't scare me like that again,"
"Sorry, Oishi," Eiji said softly. "I... to be honest, I was scared… really scared and I thought I wouldn't be able to keep our promise anymore," The arms around Eiji tightened at his words.
For the next few minutes, they stayed like that, Eiji too exhausted to move and Oishi wanting the comfort that his best friend and doubles partner was still here with him.
Something in the corner of Eiji's eyes made him turn slightly to see what it was and almost regretted it.
For bobbing up and down in the water tauntingly was the tennis ball floating about innocently.
After all he had just been through; he still hadn't managed to grab that stupid tennis ball.
"Are you hurt?" Oishi's voice snapped him out of his thoughts as he leaned away to get a good look at Eiji.
"No," Eiji said, mildly confused. Apart from the obvious not being able to breathe thing.
"Then… how did you almost…" Oishi trailed off, not wanting to say the dreaded word. It was then Eiji understood and an embarrassed feeling came upon him. Oishi obviously thought that he could swim and for him to almost drown like that… it was only logical that Oishi thought that something else must have occurred. He tried to glance away from Oishi, but it was too hard as his shoulders were still being gripped.
"Ahh," Eiji coughed. "You can't tell anyone," He warned, though Eiji didn't really think Oishi would have anyway. Immediately Oishi nodded, the worried look had yet to disappear.
"I can't swim," Eiji mumbled under his breath. There was a second of complete silence.
"What?" Oishi's voice was completely astounded. "You can't swim? What about all the times we have gone to the beach or in the pool?" Eiji looked down.
"Have you ever seen me in the water at the beach?" Eiji asked. "And I only ever stayed in the shallow end of the pool. If I'm touching the ground, I can't exactly drown, now can I?" Oishi stared at him, almost as if he had never seen him before.
"You can't swim," Oishi confirmed and frowned worriedly when Eiji nodded.
"Nya! But don't worry about it! I try to avoid the water anyway!" Eiji gave a brief grin which was slightly shaky from his recent brush with death.
"Don't worry about it," Oishi repeated faintly. "I don't think I can't not worry about it now,"
That was true. After all, hadn't Eiji almost drowned only moments before?
"Hey Oishi," Eiji spoke up, his voice unusually quiet. "Thank you," Oishi's eyes softened.
"Anytime," Oishi said before quickly speaking hastily. "That doesn't mean you're allowed to do something like this again though, okay?" Eiji stared before laughing.
"Hoi Hoi!" Eiji stated as he slowly stood up and stretched, much like what a cat would do. Oishi stood up moments later, although, he kept his eyes focused on Eiji and the fear had yet to completely disappear from his body.
"Ahh! What were you doing in the pool in the first place?" Oishi questioned abruptly.
"It was that stupid tennis ball!" Eiji exclaimed annoyed as he walked away from the pool yet raised a fist at the ball in the pool. "I accidently knocked it in there and now it keeps taunting me! Look at what it's already done!"
"You're blaming the tennis ball?" Oishi asked with a stupefied expression as he followed Eiji. There was a slight strain in his voice though, as though he was trying to act normally.
"Of course! That ball can stay there for all I care!" Eiji said passionately.
"I'll get it out later," Oishi said with a sheepish smile. Eiji glanced over at Oishi before humming thoughtfully and spontaneously hugged Oishi before letting him go and running towards the house.
"Ahh! Wait," Oishi called out, quickly scrambling after Eiji. "We're both wet, so don't go in the house yet! I'll call my mum down to bring some towels out to us," Eiji came to a stop before jumping up and down on the spot quickly.
"Hurry hurry Oishi! It's cold Nya!" Eiji exclaimed as Oishi went passed him and stuck his dripping wet head through the doorway.
"Mum?" Oishi called out. There was a bit of a hustling noise before Oishi's mum appeared, holding some ironed clothing in one of her hands. She stared at them for a second before a stern look appeared on her face.
"Shuichiro! Kikumaru-kun!" Oishi's mum berated them. "What were you doing in the pool? You both could get a cold,"
"Eh, we fell in…" Eiji sheepishly rubbed his head. Oishi's mum shook her head.
"I'll get you both some towels," She said as she walked away.
"Thanks mum," Oishi said gratefully.
"Yeah, thanks," Eiji quickly said as his shivering got more pronounced. It was only a minute afterwards that she reappeared and gave them both a towel. They began to dry themselves quickly, wishing to go inside and out of the freezing cold.
"Nya, that was quite an adventure," Eiji said making Oishi frown.
"If that's your version of an adventure, then I wish to never have one again," Oishi spoke, his voice conveying irritation which Eiji immediately picked up upon.
"Oishi? What's wrong?" Eiji asked.
"Would you not do that?!" Oishi said tensely, his hands clenched. Eiji stared back in confusion.
"What did I do?" Eiji frowned thoughtfully, replaying their conversation.
"Stop making light of the fact that you almost…" Oishi broke off leaving Eiji to look at him with big eyes before they softened in understanding.
"S-sorry," Eiji mumbled as he glanced off to the side. Oishi sighed. It wasn't Eiji's fault. He was just particularly tense now and it was hard to get his mind off of what had happened.
"No, I'm sorry as well. I'm just taking my frustration onto you," Oishi said with a guilty look. Eiji looked away and out into the distance, his face unusually thoughtful. Oishi stared at this occurrence, surprised.
"Hey Oishi," Eiji was back to being quiet.
"Yes?" Oishi asked, studying Eiji who ducked his head down, almost shyly.
"Will you… teach me to swim?" Eiji asked, tense as he waited for Oishi's answer. He was well aware that if Oishi said yes, he would literally be trusting Oishi with his life, but if he couldn't trust Oishi, then who could he trust?
"Okay," Oishi's answer was so simple that Eiji almost felt taken aback and glanced towards Oishi's face automatically and it was one of the few times that Eiji found it completely simple to read Oishi's face.
If Eiji had to choose a word to describe the emotion he saw on Oishi's face that day, he would have probably gone with touched.
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Later that day when Eiji had gone back to his house, Oishi breathed out slowly before sitting down shakily in the dark and hugged his knees tightly, the day's events repeating over and over in his head. Eiji had been so close to being gone... forever.
But he hadn't, Oishi reminded himself. He's alive and at his house, yet Oishi still felt tempted to give Eiji a quick ring.
Ignoring the feeling, Oishi realized just how vulnerable people were and how easily they could be taken away, just like how Eiji nearly was.
And all because of that tennis ball…. It wasn't like Oishi to hold a grudge and despite that it was an inanimate object, he found himself holding a great deal of anger towards that tennis ball. He knew that looking at that tennis ball would be a reminder of what could have occurred and the memory of Eiji's motionless body.
So a few hours later, Oishi fished the tennis ball that had caused all the events that day out of the pool and gave it a one way trip to the trash can.
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Debating whether to continue this for a few more chapters.
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