Title: Nutshells
By: ExquisitelyInked
Summary: Keigo and Ryoma drag Kuranosuke into their relationship, and everything becomes more fragile and precious than before. Atobe/Shiraishi/Ryoma.
Rated: T
Disclaimer: No. I don't own Prince of Tennis. It's beautiful and lovely and I really wish I did. But I don't.
A/N: Alphabet Challenge. One letter, one word, one sentence (although I took my liberties with that rule). I like this trio. A lot. I'm going to go offline for a long while after this Saturday, I think, and it hurts.
A - Atobe
Shiraishi doesn't really get a chance to speak when Keigo Atobe pushes him up against a wall and says something about joining relationships before kissing him.
B - Bandages
Ryoma tries to unravel the bandages on Kuranosuke's left hand once, just to see what lies beneath the white. Shiraishi snatches his arm away, but not before Ryoma catches a glimpse of the gold.
C - Compromise
Echizen doesn't have the height required to push people up against walls, Shiraishi thinks absently as his hands run through Ryoma's hair and their tongues touch. He pulls them up against himself instead.
D - Dance
Keigo and Ryoma have a small (massive, immature) fight over who gets to dance with Kuranosuke. Shiraishi wonders whether they've done the right thing in asking him to be theirs.
E - Elephant
Sometimes Shiraishi wakes up, and there's Keigo on his left, and Ryoma on his right, both asleep, holding on to him tightly, so tightly that Shiraishi feels torn, crushed in more ways than one.
F - Future
Ryoma's going to go conquer the world. Keigo's going to take over his father's company. Shiraishi's going to sit and wonder why his perfect tennis turned out to mean shit in the end, if he doesn't have either of them.
G - Gaze
Shiraishi always distinguishes between Keigo's blue eyes and Ryoma's golden ones, but can't when one pair looks up at him from below and the other consumes his world three inches from his face.
H - Hell
Shiraishi hates how he has to mediate every single fight that Keigo and Ryoma have, because they won't listen to him calming them in his lilting Kansai accent.
I - Incapable
Breakfast is just another word for taunts and dinner another for spite. Shiraishi counts the days he has with the fire and storm that are Keigo and Ryoma, respectively, unable to think of a lifetime together.
J - Jealousy
When Shiraishi and Echizen spot Keigo talking to a girl from his school, they don't want to think much of it, until Keigo takes the girl's hands and they share a deep kiss.
K - Knife
When Keigo comes home the next morning, clearly dishevelled, Shiraishi doesn't have much to point out to Keigo except Ryoma's swollen red eyes and the sword hanging over the three of them by a thread.
L - Love
"Love you, Kuranosuke."
"Your name's too fucking long."
"Excuse you."
"We should start calling you Kanpeki. Perfection. Which you are."
"No, thank you."
"But we still love you."
"I know."
M - Madness
Keigo can't explain the utter loneliness he feels in his own house, in the bed the three share, the touches he doesn't feel anymore, the glances he no longer gets. He can't explain the choices his family forces him to make and the choices that he actually makes.
N - Need
Keigo is just this close to breaking down in relief when Kuranosuke and Ryoma finally pull him into themselves after days, surrounding him with their arms and legs and fingers and tongues and lips, hot breaths, bites.
O - Over
Even after five years of not being around them, Shiraishi can't forget them. He watches Keigo marrying the girl he cheated on them with, he watches Ryoma find solace in his Wimbledon trophies. He watches, and watches.
P - Perfection
Bullshit. It's the first word that comes to Shiraishi's mind when he thinks of perfection. His 'perfect' tennis isn't all that great. He just plays his style for the team. His wonderful, deserving team.
He finds perfection manifested in the dynamics of what Atobe and Ryoma share, and when they both hold a hand out to him, perfection's not really bullshit anymore, but a tangible, attainable state.
Q - Quote
Ah, ecstasy. Be awed at the sight of my prowess. You still have a long way to go.
Keigo sometimes sits down with Shiraishi and Ryoma and they joke about the arrogant little shits that the three of them are.
R - Radiant
Ryoma likes looking at Kuranosuke and Keigo. They're like magnets, they don't sit more than six inches apart, they attract attention, they're powerful. An aura of quiet authority hovers around them, even as they grab him and tickle him as if they're all on a trip to their childhood, and Ryoma's laugh colors the air with vibrance.
S - Satisfaction
Ryoma wakes up and finds himself sandwiched between two snoring boys who have their arms wrapped possessively around him. He smiles a little and goes back to sleep.
T - Tough
It's tough staying together after Keigo and his mistakes, but they manage to live day-to-day lives, except that they don't kiss anymore, and they make boundaries on their bed with pillows which are undisturbed in the morning and desperation settles over them like a shroud.
U - Unwound
Ryoma is diagnosed with a terminal disease, and Shiraishi and Keigo put aside their differences over the damn girl just to take care of him, hold his hands, kiss him asleep, sit on opposite sides of the bed until it's empty.
V - Vanished
Shiraishi and Keigo look at the tears on their pillows and then look at the dry pillow between them. They can't look at each other, guilt eating them from the inside. But they slide their arms around each other and kiss for all the times they didn't.
W - Waylaid
Ryoma is always roaming around the house, doing things. Atobe is always randomly pulling him into rooms and kissing him soundly before releasing him and going off to find Kuranosuke, who is always reading one of Atobe's books and pretending he was trying to use it to fall asleep.
X - Xerox
"I don't suppose you've got a photocopy of your ass among those papers you copied for me," Keigo says dryly.
Ryoma smirks. "Didn't have the time, was... busy."
Shiraishi has the decency to not look guilty at all.
Y - Young
When you're young, you feel like you can do any damn thing in the world. You start believing you can make a fucking difference. You believe everybody will always be there for you, be around, be alive.
So it must hurt the most when you lose a love to Death and another to Atobe Corp.
Z - Zero
"Come back to bed, brat."
"No, the Federer-Nadal match's starting."
"Ryoma, get back here."
"Mada mada dane."
Shiraishi and Atobe are too lazy to get out of bed to drag Ryoma back in.
Ryoma takes full advantage of their lack of willpower, and smugly sits down in front of the TV with the remote.
Hope you liked this.