Title: Hamburgers and Ponta Cans
By: ExquisitelyInked
Summary: Because Momoshiro was only hanging out with An to take advice on how to woo Ryoma, while the white-capped prodigy got jealous of their closeness. An curses her luck a lot.
Rated: T
Disclaimer: Whoo, I don't own this manga/anime/franchise/whatever.
A/N: A MomoRyo fic! I didn't know I had it in me to write one. I did. If you like it, well, review! I wasn't sure whether to have An like Momo or not, so I kept her feelings rather vague. Okay, thank you for reading, and review if you like it!
An Tachibana had never come across a guy who didn't approach her for her. She was comparatively pretty, had a brother who was great at tennis and leadership, and had everything going for her. Kamio would do anything for her. And if somebody like Kamio dogged her footsteps, well, she guessed she was high up on the attraction ladder.
Yet Momoshiro was a different story. The guy, when he'd first seen her, had fallen head over heels for her - or she'd thought. He'd only seen a burger from that famous café in her hand, she found out later. On top of it, he wasn't that scared of Kippei. Maybe because they'd defeated Fudomine because of that tennis player who arrogantly played one-eyed with a guy like Shinji, or because Momoshiro became friends with whoever he looked at. Kippei had no problem being friends with the guy, because, he said later, he'd realized he had a better radar than his sister when it came to homosexuality. An sighed. Of course. Her luck. Find the one good-looking guy in town she could have had a crush on and make him gay.
"Yo, Tachibana!"
An raised a hand, waving, as the purple-eyed boy grinned at her and made his way through the café to the table where she was sitting. "How're you doing? Thanks for doing this, by the way. I'd have no idea what to do if you hadn't agreed to help me."
"Yeah, Momo, you owe me one." An fixed a stray strand of hair, tucking it behind her ear, and continued, "So who do you want to seduce, anyway?"
Momo was kind of surprised she was getting down to business so quickly, but he answered, anyway. "It's Echizen." Momo colored as he said the name, and all An could think was, damn, he blushes prettier than a girl.
"Echizen? The guy who played with a bleeding eye?" Not that one, really? An had felt the stone he had for a heart while he was playing. Momo just had to go and fall for the worst possible person, ever. Again, her luck. She had to help Momo woo that rock now.
"Yeah, that was just so cool, wasn't it," Momo said, smiling slightly. "That idiot is my best friend, you know."
An's eyes narrowed. "If he's really your best friend, I think he might have seen through your feelings, don't you?"
"No, I don't think so. All he thinks about is tennis and his cat. He doesn't have time for this."
"This, meaning, hot sweet love," An winked at him. Momo blushed like a girl again. "What do you want to do to-with him?" she asked, changing her words at the last moment.
Momo ignored the question in favor of ordering a couple of hamburgers and a can of grape Ponta from the waitress who'd come over. An stared at Momo. The cheek of that guy. Her luck; helping this jackass. "I'm wasting my precious time sitting in front of you, Momo."
"Don't say you're wasting it. You're spending it productively, helping to better the love life of a good friend," Momo said, mock-hurt. An half-smiled. "Fine," she said. "What does he like?"
"Tennis, and his cat. I already told you."
"Well, can you bring yourself to like cats, too?"
"He knows I'm allergic to cats."
"You are? Weak-ass," An muttered, making sure Momo caught it (Momo grinned wryly; he had no choice but to bear it). "Okay, what do you guys have in common?"
"Tennis."
An looked at the heavens, seeking divine intervention for the poor boy sitting in front of her. "Anything else?"
"Um, we both love Dakeno Kodakeno Konon Kickki. And hamburgers. And I got hooked to Ponta from him."
While Momo was saying this, An was casting her eyes over the crowd in the café, because she'd just spotted two Seigaku jackets go to the burger counter. "Hey, were any of your teammates planning a trip to a burger place?"
"Yeah, Kikumaru-senpai was going to drag somebody with him and make them foot the bill, because they were going to try a new burger place... why?"
"I think that's them," An said, waving her finger in the general direction of those two jackets. One of them had a cap on his head. A white one. "I think that's your Echizen with that redhead."
"What?" Momoshiro jumped up from his seat, craning his head over the horde of chattering people, searching for the short boy, and apparently spotting him, because he sank back down, and An got a full frontal view of Momo's in-love expression. Her fucking luck; she had to get this lovesick Romeo to the cat-lover over there.
"He's here," An sang, enjoying the blush on the boy's face. Maybe there was an upside to this after all. Somebody other than her brother to torture. "Yeah, he is," Momo said, sinking lower in his seat, looking downwards, and damn, An thought, this guy is fucking beautiful. How the hell could the arrogant Echizen boy not see it?
"So, what you're going to do, now, is you're going to get up, and get the hell out of here, because there is no way you're going to let him see us sitting together, because he'll think the obvious thing, and go farther away than he already is."
"He's my best friend," Momo reminded her, accepting the Ponta can from the waitress with a smile, biting into the hamburger with a hunger born of his energy spent blushing. "He's not that far from me."
"Oh, you're soulmates, you can completely understand and reciprocate each other's feelings, blah blah. Yet here you are, in front of me, begging for my help," An said, with a wide, teasing smile, leaning back in her seat. She hadn't ordered anything.
"I'm not begging for your help," Momo said, wounded. He took a swig of the Ponta and said, "You can go, if you want, you know, I didn't really force you to help."
"No, I think I'll watch this trainwreck-in-progress," An said, grinning like the Cheshire Cat in a book Momo had to read for a school assignment. He was going to reply as acerbically when a cheerful voice descended upon their ears-"Momo-chan! How coincidental, seeing you here! Waaah, you're on a date with a girl, nya!"
An smiled at Kikumaru Eiji, who was now nuzzling against Momo with a big grin, mouth inching toward the burger in Momo's hand. Momo swiped it away from him. "Hello," she said, "I'm not his girlfriend."
"Oh," another voice behind Kikumaru said, "that's why you were smiling so big at him. Mada mada dane, Tachibana-san."
"Echizen!" Momo exclaimed, stuffing the burger in Eiji's mouth and getting up (no choice, Eiji was blocking his view). "She's really not my girlfriend! We just happened to meet each other here."
Ryoma looked at him, head tilted up, golden eyes burning into him, and replied, "Whatever. Che, Kikumaru-senpai, I'm hungry. Are we going to order or not?"
"Ah, that's right! Sorry, o-chibi, I forgot. You have money, don't you?"
"Kikumaru-senpai... mada mada dane," Ryoma said as the two walked from from An and Momo. He turned his head once to look again at Momo, who whispered, "Why is he pissed?"
Her fucking crappy luck. Her friend's crush thought she was with him, and got jealous.
Oh, wait. Got jealous.
"It's a good thing," An said, Cheshire Cat grin slowly reforming on her face. "He's jealous. Give me your hand."
"It's greasy from the burger."
"This world is amply supplied with soap, Momoshiro, calm down."
Momo took her hand, lacing his fingers with hers, slowly stroking the back of her hand with his thumb, and An thought, damn, this guy would've broken many hearts. Her luck-okay, it wasn't to blame here.
She smiled at Momo, a fake smile that made him shudder, and said, "You know, he got jealous. Of me."
"Why would he?" Momo asked, genuinely confused. Her fucking goddamn luck. She had to explain every tiny thing like a pedantic idiot, had she?
"Because he thinks you're on a date with me," An said, watching Momo slowly catch on. "Oh, I see," he said. "That's why you wanted to hold my oily hand. You're goading him."
"Yup," An said smugly. "And he's coming here, so you'd better start getting lovey-dovey with me."
"Here?" Momo tried to turn around, but An grabbed his other hand, too, and looked into his eyes meaningfully as the white-capped prodigy walked over. "Che, Momo-senpai, if you could stop fucking her in public, maybe you could lend me a couple hundred yen, we're short of some money over there," Ryoma said, looking anywhere but at the intertwined hands.
"We're not 'fucking', Echizen-kun," An said, in a complete turnaround from I'm not his girlfriend and added, "We don't do that... in public."
"Um, here, Echizen, I'll give you the yen," Momo said, trying to let go of An's hands (she made a show of letting them go reluctantly). He handed the money to Ryoma, who walked away without a second look. An jumped on Momo the instant he was out of earshot. "Go out now," she said, a note of urgency in her voice. "If you go out now, he'll follow you. Leave this café and go somewhere, anywhere. He'll dump it all to come after you."
"How ... can you be sure of that?"
"I'm a girl, I get stuff."
Momo got up. "Thank you, An. Even if it doesn't work out between me and Echizen, thank you anyway." He bowed, and washed his hands in an available washroom, and left the café. An noticed Echizen's eyes track him out the door, and smiled privately. Her luck. She had to let go of the one good-looking guy in town she could've had a crush on.
Echizen spoke to Kikumaru a bit and left the café, too, and An really hoped Momo's love would come to fruition.
Momo was in the park. He liked parks. He felt he could get away from his own boisterous nature here.
"Momo-senpai!"
Momo turned around, hearing Echizen's voice. Was An right, after all?
"Why'd you leave your girlfriend behind at the café? Che, mada mada dane, senpai, you should never do that." Ryoma fell into step beside his best friend. Momo said, "You're giving me advice on love? And she's not my girlfriend anyway, Ryoma."
"Why was she holding hands with you then? And the comment on fucking? Momo, you're not a virgin?"
"Of course I am! Come on, Ryoma, I haven't even touched anybody that way. And she was riling you up because she thinks you have a crush on me."
"Does she really?"
Momo nodded.
"Well, maybe I do," Ryoma said, pulling the brim of his cap down to hide his face and grabbing Momo's hand in the same movement.
Momo stopped walking. A smile formed on his face as he looked down at the boy, who was obviously blushing under that cap. If An had been here, she would've given the 'Pretty Blushing Boy' award to Ryoma.
That fucking cap. Momo knocked it off. Ryoma didn't retrieve it.
"Maybe I love you, too," Momo said. Ryoma looked up in shock as Momo leant down to kiss him.
She had the worst luck in the world, really, An thought, as a few days later she saw Momo and Ryoma sitting together on Momo's bicycle. Ryoma took a sip of Ponta from the can he was holding and turned to kiss Momo, grabbing his shirt, while Momo buried his hands in Ryoma's hair, kissing back, licking and sucking Ryoma's lips.
She distinctly heard them say "I love you" to each other before she left them alone with a big, big smile on her face.