Disclaimer: If I owned it, then this would actually be happening. Come to your own conclusions.
Rating: PG
Warnings: Minor language dotted about, minor angst
Summary: Third in the 'Going to Hokkaido' mini-arc. Marui is severely pissed off at Niou. Guess what? HUMOUR (well, mildly…). Yay.
Author's notes: Another Rikkai drabblething. You don't have to have read the ones that come before this, but it might help a bit. The drabblething list goes:
Times of Stress
Passing the Time
How to ask out Marui Bunta
Four Days Later
October Ice
Because I Love You
Evil
Further Nonsense
Dear Diary
Kind of… the same
100 Word Challenges
Driver in a Hurry, Child in a Coma
Doctor, doctor!
The Woes of Solomon Grundy
I'm Not Going
The Little Things
He WHAT?!
If y'ain't read 'I'm Not Going' then you will get confuzzled.
Thanks to Fair Cruelty (So sorry I didn't reply to your email; had practically no internet access recently. I'll reply as soon as I can), Joecavegal, Ahotep, Ryuu Amethyst (Ah! Ah hah! Look here! Mwa. ;pp If you review, of course you'll be in my AN. Credit where credit is due –nods wisely-), Haru-Hatori-Hiro (of course it is x3), Claude Le Viste, HI!! (So totally glad you like 'em), Merissala (Ahh, now we have four members for the Akaya fanclub!), KiriharaAkaya (xDD You make me laugh so much. And no, the link still dun work…) Animesque, Risa-chan (your review made my day), Pikke Wood (what can I say? I love you ;pp), Roey Cleine (-hides under chair- LOL) EiKiTouYuIchiMaSyuke Angel (seriously, do you wanna request a mini-drabblething? Cos I think that name deserves it xDD Just ask) May-Linn (your review also totally made my day xD) Chawanmushi (ahh, sankyuu for the 16th review) and Toh Sock (have I given you a drabblething yet? If I haven't, then please, please yell at me and then request one). You all just… -tears up- ;) Thank you!
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Thud.
Yukimura looked up, startled. He waited, but nothing else seemed to happen. One of the boxes in the clubhouse might have fallen over. Never mind; he'd pick it up later.
Thud.
He looked up again and put his textbook back in his bag, getting up from the bench he'd been sitting on. Damn, the clubhouse was going to be such a damn mess if all the boxes fell down. He made his way towards the door, breaking into a run when three crashes came in rapid succession.
To his enormous relief, the door wasn't locked, and he pulled it open without difficulty.
Marui was sitting on the floor amidst a pile of tennis balls and spare racquets, looking like his world had decided to implode without telling him.
"… Ow," he said, sounding more surprised than anything else. Yukimura made a tiny clicking noise with his tongue and gave him a hand up, surveying the mess resignedly.
"What happened?" he asked. "You weren't trying to pull off some elaborate practical joke or something, were you?"
Marui shook his head indignantly. "No! I was just… Eh. Um."
"… Throwing yourself against the wall?" Yukimura guessed.
Marui literally gaped at him. "How the hell did you know that?"
"Because we just had the inner walls repainted." Yukimura pointed at the white paint coating Marui from head to foot. The self-proclaimed tensai swore and tried to brush it off. Yukimura grabbed his wrists before he could do so and end up getting paint on his hands to inevitably spread everywhere. Sometimes he really wondered where people's common sense went for their holidays. He hoped it rained a lot there.
"Oops. Thanks, Mura," Marui said sheepishly, dropping his hands to his sides and making his way carefully over to one of the small benches, sitting down. "I promise I'll clean it up in a bit."
"Well, 'Haru's owed a punishment anyway," Yukimura shrugged. "He can help you. I was running out of punishments to give him; he likes running laps, heaven knows why."
"Heh, yeah."
"So why exactly where you throwing yourself off the wall?" Yukimura asked. He had a pretty good idea, though.
"Oh, um… Yeah… I just felt kind of stupid for not going to see Akaya off at the airport," Marui said, scuffling his feet against the floor like a little boy. "I really should have. I bet he got upset about that. I mean, he hasn't even called since. Or sent me an email, either. He must think… he must think I don't care."
Yep. Just as he'd thought. Yukimura exhaled silently. "Bunta, we've been through this. Akaya didn't tell us when or even where he was taking the plane from. None of us could possibly have made it unless we'd hacked into every airport's record systems. You shouldn't feel bad about it."
"Yeah, but still…" Marui looked dangerously close to tears. Yukimura couldn't remember having ever seen him cry over anything that wasn't Akaya-related.
They sat in silence for a few moments, until Yukimura broke it, saying, "He's been gone for three days. But I still keep thinking, oh, I promised to play a match with him this Sunday. And then I remember that I can't now."
"Yeah? I get the opposite. I can't think of him without remembering that he's on the other side of an ocean."
"Well, really it's only a little mini-sea…"
Marui flicked Yukimura on the shoulder, making him smile a little. "Same difference."
The club door swung open, making Marui jump. Niou strolled through the doorway, whistling soundlessly to himself, stopping in purposefully comical midstep as he caught sight of the mess and a white-splashed Marui. He raised an eyebrow, walking forward again. "I'm not asking because I don't want to know," he said. "So much potential blackmail material in one place isn't good for the brain."
"Nothing worth blackmailing me with here anyway," Marui muttered. "I just made a bit of a mess, that's all."
"Right, right." Niou pulled out his jacket from his little personal clubhouse space and shrugged it carelessly on. "What's with the doom and gloom in here? Feels like a bloody morgue."
"Bunta's just feeling a bit low because he didn't get to see Akaya off at the airport," Yukimura said.
"Really? Didn't know you wanted him to go that much."
Marui tried to glare, but he couldn't really be bothered. "Shut up, Haru. You know I really wanted to say goodbye properly."
"Aww, bless. I'll be sure to tell him."
Instantly, Marui was on his feet, eyes wide. "He's contacted you? Is he angry with me? Is he ok? Why hasn't he rung me, or texted me, or anything?"
"What're you talking about?" Niou asked, stifling a yawn.
"Akaya! Did he phone you? How's he finding Hokkaido?"
Niou opened the door again, hands in pockets. "I have no idea."
Marui looked nonplussed. "But you just said…!"
"Hmm? He didn't go to Hokkaido. He's been living with me for the last week. It's not like my aunt and uncle give a shit about what I do anyway. It's payback for when he rescued m… well, never mind, it's payback. I never forget, right? Heh, you should have seen his face when I told him he was coming to live with me. Crybaby. I meant to tell you, but I guess I forgot. Whoops. Well, never mind, you know now." Niou strolled out of the clubhouse, a satisfied glint in his eyes.
There was absolute silence in the messy room.
"… He WHAT?!"
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Sandy: Mwa. Only short, but I'm planning a kick-ass Christmas fic, so… :) I was toying with the idea of making it a non-happy ending, but my Maruihara muses just wouldn't let me. ;) Pleased?
If you liked it, then please, please leave a review. It would give me a huge boost for the last few days of my exams, it really would.
Oh, that reminds me, if you haven't already then go and read Animesque's fic 'Training Camp or Not'. It's a joint effort rp-turned-fanfic between me and her, and she's done wonders with it. x33
Until next time!