Hoi hoi! First attempt at Golden Pair, so don't be too harsh please! Although concrit is highly appreciated. Obviously, as the summary contains the phrase "his boyfriend," I'm going to assume you recognize it's yaoi. If you don't like it, you shouldn't have clicked it. Oh, and SPOILER ALERT! There's like a huge chunk of episode 52 in there, so fair warning. Now on to the story...well, after this bothersome little detail...
Disclaimer: If I owned the pretty PoT boys, they'd be helping me with MY tennis, so obviously they don't belong to me.
"Oishi!" Eiji ran, well, half-ran-half-bounced, to catch up with his boyfriend, who was already a block away from the school, "Why didn't you wait for me?" The redhead smacked into the back of the other boy as he stopped abruptly.
"Gomen, Eiji. I guess I was just a bit preoccupied."
Eiji cocked his head to the side, looking like a confused puppy dog, "Preoccupied, nya? With what?"
Oishi looked up, a frown on his face until he saw the look he was receiving. A bemused grin crept on his face, and he ruffled the acrobat's hair, "Don't worry about it, it's nothing."
Eiji purred happily, "Well maybe you should stay over tonight to forget about all this nothing, nya! I always need my Oishi-teddy-bear to help me sleep, especially when my family's gone…"
A strange look crossed the vice-captain's face as he blushed, "Eiji, I can't tonight. I have three tests tomorrow, and I have to take care of my sister tonight. Besides, your sister will be there, so you won't be all alone." Upon seeing the crushed look on his boyfriend's face, he grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers, "Eiji…please don't be upset. Another night, okay? I promise."
Eiji pouted for a while longer. "What if I say we'll go for ice cream after practice tomorrow to make up for it? My treat." Oishi added, and to his relief the redhead's grin returned.
"Really Oishi?" Eiji jumped onto the other boy's back, "I can't wait, nya! It's gonna be so fun…oh! I'm supposed to meet Fujiko at the library, he said he'd help me study if I'd let him take some candid shots of my acrobatics later! Saa, I'm going to be late!"
Oishi chuckled at his friend's antics, "You'd better go then Eiji, it's not polite to keep Fuji waiting. I'll see you tomorrow." He felt Eiji jump off of his back, then watched as he ran down the street, then turned and ran back towards him. "I almost forgot!" Eiji kissed Oishi on the cheek, causing the boy to blush again, then ran back down the street, "See you tomorrow Oishi!"
Eiji raced all the way to the library, knocking over two chairs as he entered, but catching them before they fell. "Fujiko! Gomen, gomen, I'm late!" The librarian glared at the energetic boy, causing him to lower his voice, "I was chasing Oishi, he forgot to wait for me this afternoon, then I remembered I was supposed to be back here with you." He stuck his tongue out at the librarian, who had turned her back to place some books back on the shelf.
Fuji merely smiled, "It's fine Eiji, don't worry about it. I got some good shots while I was waiting for you. Now, you wanted some help studying, didn't you?" Eiji made a face, and Fuji continued, "Or if you'd rather, we can talk about Oishi, although that won't exactly help you with your math exam tomorrow."
"Mou...Fuji you're no fun." Eiji pouted, opening his book, "First Oishi, now you, why is everyone so un-fun today? Is it because of Momo-chan? Because I mean we all knew one of us was going to be kicked from the regulars."
Fuji looked at him, smile still intact, "What do you mean Eiji?"
"I asked Oishi to come over tonight, but he said he has too many tests and has to take care of his sister. And he seemed frustrated when I caught up to him after school, but he wouldn't tell me why. I think he's worrying about Momo missing practice." Eiji bounced in his seat, wishing he were back out on the courts with his doubles partner.
"That doesn't sound unreasonable Eiji, you're overreacting. It seems like we're not the only ones affected by Momo's missing practice; you're rather unfocused yourself today as well. As for Oishi, he always worries about tests, you know that. And he probably just didn't want to worry you with whatever he was thinking about, Momo or not. Now, I am going to help you study like you asked," the tensai's eyes flashed dangerously, but playfully, "and if you don't pay attention and calm down, I'm going to find Inui and have him give you something that'll calm you down."
Eiji paled, then stopped bouncing and picked up his book, sighing. Everyone was being so un-themselves lately, all because Momo was playing hooky from practice for a day; Eiji just didn't get it.
"UUUUUUGGGGGGHH!" came a shout from the second floor of the Kikumaru household the next morning, as a disheveled redhead flung open the bathroom door. "Nothing's going right this morning! I'm going to be late, nya!" Eiji exclaimed as he glanced at the clock then raced out the door, flinging a beanie on his head as he left. "This is unbelievable! Ne-san and I have the whole house to ourselves, I don't even have to fight for the bathroom, and I'm still running late!" He exclaimed to no one in particular as he ran. He was in such a hurry, he didn't even notice Inui walking down the sidewalk until he ran into him, knocking them both down, scattering their belongings.
"Hm…Kikumaru, your balance has decreased by thirty percent today, and your focus is ten percent less than usual. You're obviously worried about being late, but at the rate you were running, you would've been five minutes early still. If you're so distracted, I have a new formula for you to try out, designed specifically to increase focus. I was going to try it out at the afternoon practice, but I'd be more than willing to let you test it first." Inui stated as he picked himself up and cleaned his glasses.
"Nonononono! I won't do it, nya! You can't make me!" Eiji shook his head violently, bouncing up from the ground and backing away.
"Ah, but you have a math exam today Kikumaru, and this should help you increase your score by seventeen percent." Inui replied.
"I don't care!" Eiji scooped up his belongings, threw them in his bag, and rushed off. "I'll see you later, Inui!" the redhead shouted, taking a sip from his water bottle, or rather, the water bottle he'd picked up. Instantly, Eiji's face paled as he stopped and turned the water bottle in his hand, only to read "Inui" on the front. His face rapidly took on several different colors, turning from red to pale again, before finally taking on a greenish hue. "I…Inui…" Eiji muttered as he flung the bottle behind him.
"Interesting, Kikumaru's speed has increased fifty-one percent." The acrobat heard as he raced away. Not that he cared, all he wanted was to get to school as fast as possible and get the revolting taste of Inui's drink out of his mouth.
After scrubbing his mouth out for a solid ten minutes, Eiji could still slightly taste the disgusting juice, and made a mental note to never get on Inui's bad side. He rushed to his classroom, but was already late, causing the teacher to order him to stay after school.
"Eiji, what's wrong?" Fuji asked as his friend let out an exasperated sigh and lay his head on the desk.
"Mmmphs gng rgt td." was Eiji's muffled reply.
"Gomen, what hasn't gone right today?" the tensai asked while copying the notes from the board. Fuji had already begun to copy a second set, realizing Eiji would accomplish nothing in this class.
"It took me forever to get ready this morning, and I finally had to resort to this," Eiji pointed to the beanie on his head, "because I was almost late to school, and on the way I ran into Inui, who had…" he shuddered at the recollection, "a new juice for us to try, and of course my water bottle got switched with his when we fell, nya. So I ended up being late anyway, because I spend the last ten minutes trying to get rid of the taste of that stuff! Now I have to stay after, and it's not fair."
Fuji gave his friend a sad smile, Eiji was having a rough morning. The tensai decided to take pity on his friend, "Sensei? Could you come here for a moment? I am a bit stuck on our work."
"Of course, Fuji-kun." The teacher replied; a bit baffled that her smartest student was having trouble. Then she looked up from her desk, right into the cold blue eyes of Fuji Syuusuke, and realized the conversation would have nothing to do with questions about work. She forced herself not to shudder as she reached the tensai, bending down so that he could ask his "question." A short moment later, the now white-as-a-sheet teacher turned to Eiji, saying, "K...Kikumaru-kun...don't worry about being late to class."
Eiji glanced up from his desk, giving the teacher a confused look, "Are you sure, sensei?"
"H…hai, of course. Don't give it another thought, Kikumaru-kun. In fact, I'm willing to overlook it whenever you need to be a few minutes late to class. If there's any way I can help you or if you need anything for any other classes, an excuse or anything, let me know, I'm more than happy to help you with whatever you need." Their sensei rambled, backing away slowly from the pair, eyes focused on Fuji, his smile just the tiniest bit bigger than before.
Eiji looked from the teacher to his friend, "Fuji, did you do that?"
"I thought you could use a break, you seem to have had a bit of an off start this morning." The honey-haired boy replied.
"Thanks Fujiko!" Eiji exclaimed, thinking maybe the day was turning around.
"Of course, Eiji. I know you'll return the favor sometime." Fuji replied, opening his eyes and smirking at his friend.
"Then again, maybe not." Eiji muttered under his breath.
After school, Eiji stood by the school gate, waiting for his doubles partner, "Well this has been a rotten day," Eiji pouted as he watched the last of the team head home, "but at least now I get to go out for ice cream, nya! Oishi always knows what to do when I've had a bad day." He glanced around, looking for his partner, who was nowhere to be seen. Then he heard the voice of his boyfriend.
"Momoshiro has missed practice again, should we send someone to see him? It's not good for the team for him to miss practice."
Eiji looked up, and saw Oishi and Tezuka standing in Ryuzaki's office, talking to the coach.
"He'll be fine, Oishi, just give him some time." Ryuzaki replied.
"But…"
"If you're so worried about him, Oishi, perhaps you'd like to visit him?" the coach said gently, "Why don't you go by his house from here?"
The fuko-buchou began to protest, "…Now?"
"What better time than the present?" Ryuzaki replied.
"H…hai. Of course sensei." Oishi answered, turning and heading for the door. Eiji fought back tears as he waited for Oishi to walk through the school to the gates. When he saw his boyfriend, Oishi had a resigned look on his face, "Eiji…I can't…"
"I know." Eiji interrupted, "You have to go visit Momo. You're blowing me off again."
A shocked look crossed Oishi's face, "Eiji! It's not like that. Sensei suggested that I go see him. And I was going to…"
"You could've said no, you know!" Eiji interrupted again angrily, "There's always after we went out, or tomorrow, nya! Momo probably doesn't even want to see us; he's made himself disappear these past two days!"
Oishi stared blankly at his boyfriend, grabbing the acrobat's hand, "Where is this coming from, Eiji?"
"Right, like you care." Eiji snatched his hand out of the other boy's grasp, "Just go Oishi! Obviously that's where you want to be, comforting Momo instead of me. I'll see you tomorrow." The redhead took of down the street, ignoring the calls of his name coming from the boy left by the gate.
That night, Eiji tossed and turned in bed, uncomfortable with the abnormal quiet of the room caused by his brother's absence. The redhead lay in bed trying to figure out what was wrong with his boyfriend. "Why does he keep choosing Momo over me, nya? It's not fair! Baka Oishi, if you won't let me talk to you to feel better about my bad day, then I'll just have to make myself feel better." The redhead smiled as he hugged Daigoro, his mind full of schemes to cheer himself up as he drifted off to sleep.
Eiji started off the next morning with his favorite strawberry toothpaste, grinning extra widely as he brushed his teeth. His sister came in and made his hair flip out a little bit extra, something she hadn't done since he was little. Eiji rushed to school, looking in all the store windows as he passed, feeling like a little kid as he flipped down the sidewalk, laughing at the way his hair bounced. "Zannen, Munnen Oishi! I'm going to have a good day today, whether you're part of it or not, nya!" Eiji exclaimed to himself as he sat down at his desk, flashing a "V" to Fuji next to him.
"Someone's feeling better today." Fuji said softly, smiling at the energetic boy next to him as he handed him the notes from the day before.
"Arigatou Fujiko!" Eiji glomped onto his friend, "Today is my Eiji-day! I'm going to do lots of stuff to cheer me up and have the best day ever, nya!"
"Hn…Eiji-day, ne? Well if you need any help, I'm always here." Fuji smiled again, his blue eyes flashing mischievously, "The best day for anyone wouldn't be complete without a trick or two."
"Thanks again Fujiko!" Eiji exclaimed. He then calmed slightly as he remembered he still owed his friend for the last time Fuji "helped" Eiji, "I think I'll handle this one on my own though, nya."
"Of course." Fuji replied simply, as he turned to smirk at the teacher. Their sensei proceeded to glance up, and upon seeing the third year's expression, abruptly shot up out of her desk so quickly she tipped her coffee over. Watching her quickly run out of the room in search of towels, Eiji couldn't help but think he wasn't the only one still worried about yesterday's conversation.
Later, during lunch, Eiji went for a walk around the school to stretch his legs. "Saa…those desks are so cramped, nya!" he exclaimed as he placed his arms behind his head, stretching. "Nya?" the redhead cocked his head to the side curiously, hearing what sounded like his boyfriend's voice coming from the second year hallway, "What's Oishi doing down here?" Eiji peeked around the corner, seeing Oishi ask for Arai, and smirked, an idea forming as he watched their conversation. He pulled one of the second-year girls walking past to him.
"Kikumaru-senpai!" she shrieked, causing him to hurriedly shush her.
"You're part of Oishi's fanclub, aren't you?" he asked, a grin appearing as she nodded, "Then you should go get the rest of your members, because I believe I saw him go over to the next hallway to speak to Arai about something, nya. I'm sure he'd love to see all of you."
He laughed as the girl ran off, telling him as she left, "Arigatou, Kikumaru-senpai, Arigatou!"
A few minutes later, a stampede of girls ran past him, screaming Oishi's name. Eiji glanced around the corner again, seeing an uncomfortable Oishi standing there blushing, overwhelmed by the chaos. Oishi looked up, spotting his partner, his eyes pleading for rescue. Normally, Eiji would bounce over and control the crowd, but instead he merely smiled and waved, pleased with the situation he'd created. He walked right past Oishi, flashing his signature "V", and doubled over with laughter after he'd turned the corner.
That afternoon Eiji bounced out to the tennis courts, flipping his racket around his wrist and animatedly sharing his prank from earlier that day with Fuji. "His expression was priceless Fujiko, nya! I wish you had been there to see it!"
"I'm sure it was, Eiji, it's too bad I missed it. I would've taken a picture for you to have. Hm…if you'd like, I'm sure we could always switch out Oishi's drink with Inui's new juice…that would be an interesting prank…" Fuji's eyes flashed mischievously at the thought.
Eiji stopped bouncing and stared at his friend, "I want to pull a prank on Oishi, Fujiko, not kill him!" he exclaimed dramatically.
"Saa, if that's what you'd like Eiji, although I don't understand the big deal. I for one find Inui's drinks to be quite delightful." The tensai smiled brightly, and continued off to the courts.
Eiji merely stopped in place, wondering how in the world he was friends with such a sadistic person, before running off to catch up. "Running laps is not included in my Eiji-day, nya! I can think about Fuji's craziness later!" he muttered to himself as he jogged onto the courts.
After warming up, Eiji stood by the fence, watching Oishi feed tennis balls to the other regulars. "Since Oishi's been replacing me with Momo lately, maybe I'll pick on them both a little, nya." Eiji thought to himself as he bounced in place, watching the balls being hit back and forth. He overheard Inui comment on Oishi's irritation, and Fuji's reply that Oishi's cared about the team twice as much as any of the rest of them. He thought he caught that Oishi was worried about Momo, and muttered, "Serves him right, he should be irritated. I'm his boyfriend, but he doesn't care about me, just Momo, nya." Then, to no one in particular, he started, "Inui! I can see he's wearing the regular's jersey today, and it's so hot out…What now? Momo didn't come today either, nya? Well, slacking off since he dropped from the regulars…" Eiji tsked, earning a warning glace from Oishi.
"Eiji. Don't be…"
Eiji ignored his boyfriend, continuing, "And I thought I could make fun of Momo when he's wearing a normal jersey!" He laughed, not noticing the shocked glance Oishi was shooting him.
"Eiji! That's too insensitive!" Oishi exclaimed from the middle of the court, glaring at his boyfriend.
Eiji just looked at him, surprised by the very un-Oishi-like outburst, and exclaimed, "What is wrong with you Oishi? Why are you so jumpy?" He looked his doubles partner up and down, and stifled a laugh, "I didn't realize you wear your shirt inside out Oishi! How embarrassing!" he remarked as he burst into laughter. The next thing he knew, Eiji was on the ground, as everyone looked with horror at the vice-captain, whose hand was still raised from hitting his partner.
All the regulars were frozen, and even Oishi looked horrified at what he'd done, "I-I'm sorry!" he said hurriedly, rushing to help up his boyfriend.
Eiji slapped his hand away, fighting back angry tears briefly before jumping up, "I swear, sometimes you make me so angry!" he exclaimed, turning towards the rest of the regulars, "I refuse to play doubles with a guy like him!" He heard his teammates encouraging him to calm down and think about what he'd just said, but none of it registered. The only thing on Eiji's mind was how angry and hurt he was because of Oishi and he shouted at whoever had spoken last, "I don't want to play doubles with him, combination cancelled, we're done!"
He heard a voice say irritatedly, "If Eiji says so, we can't do anything about it." and realized it was Oishi. Eiji crossed his arms and sulked, ignoring Taka-san's pleas for them to make up.
He realized Inui was speaking, and turned towards him, mainly to make sure Inui wasn't trying to solve the problem with a new juice, when he caught him saying, "It's not bad to change your partner once in a while, right?"
Realizing Inui was on his side, Eiji exclaimed happily, "Yes! Then I am playing doubles with ochibi! Come here ochibi and play doubles with me!"
Hearing Inui pair Oishi with Kaido, Eiji grabbed Echizen into a hug, glad Inui was on his side, allowing him to pick his own partner while choosing Oishi's for him. As they took their place on the court and readied to serve, Eiji exclaimed, "Ochibi! Let's crush Oishi!"
As he turned back to the net, he completely missed the resigned sigh Echizen gave before serving. Upon watching Oishi easily return the serve, Eiji turned to his new partner, "Play seriously!" he exclaimed, "I hate you too, ochibi!"
The acrobat angrily smashed the ball back across the net, fuming even more that he now had two doubles partners against him. However, he cheered as Kaido missed his boomerang snake, "Serves you right Oishi!" he yelled happily, earning a glare from his boyfriend.
"Eiji! Control yourself!" Oishi yelled angrily.
"Why? Don't be bitter just because I won a point!" Eiji replied, yelling even louder.
"That's not it! What you said is terrible for Kaido!"
"What, huh? You can't take the truth?" The two bickered across the net, missing the sound of footsteps approaching.
"Fighting on the courts?" a stern voice said, shocking the two out of their argument.
"Tezuka. Oh no…" they exclaimed, forming their excuses.
"Oishi, Kikumaru. Twenty laps around the court. Now." The captain said, not giving them a chance to explain.
"This is all your fault!" Eiji exclaimed angrily at Oishi before taking off.
Oishi sighed heavily before running after his boyfriend, starting their twenty laps. He tried to catch up to the red-head, but every time he would get close, Eiji would speed up even more. For someone with a stamina problem, the acrobat sure didn't seem to have a problem keeping ahead of his partn...ex-partner. Oishi finally gave up, deciding to go at his own pace and leave Eiji alone.
Ahead, Eiji swiped his hand across his eyes, determined not to cry during practice. "You're being silly, Eiji," the redhead told himself as he finished up his laps, "Seigaku regulars do not cry, even if it is out of anger. And they especially don't over stupid people like Oishi."
As he ran off to the locker room to grab his bag and leave before Oishi got finished, Eiji swore he overheard his best friend say calmly to someone, "Saa, it looks like someone's not getting any in that relationship, ne? Who do you think is reluctant?"
The acrobat turned back as he opened the door, catching his captain by the courts with the faintest tinge of pink across his cheeks. Before he entered, he noticed Seigaku's tensai chuckling while running around the courts, and heard him exclaim, "A simple 'I don't know' would've sufficed, Tezuka."
When he got home, Eiji slammed the door, racing up the stairs to his room and flopping on his bed, grateful his family was away for the week. "Why…isn't…anything...going…right!" Eiji yelled, punching his pillow after each word for emphasis.
"Eiji-kun, what's the matter?" Eiji turned to find his sister standing in his doorway.
"Go away! I hate this! This day, Momo-chan, and I really really hate Oishi!" He replied as he jumped off the bed to slam the door, only to have his sister wrap him in a bear hug. Surprised by the contact, Eiji burst into tears, unable to control them any longer.
"Ji-ji," the elder Kikumaru said softly to her little brother, using the name Eiji would call himself as a child, "you're having a bad day. You're best friends with Momoshiro, and you and Syuichirou are almost inseparable, so I have a hard time believing you hate them."
"…I-I do t-though…nya…" Eiji hiccuped through his tears, "Everyone's so mean lately…a-and they're all upset because of M-m-momo missing practice. It's his fault everyone is stressed out! And Oishi cares more about him than m-me…" a new wave of tears overflowed as the redhead brought up his boyfriend, "He…he left me the other day because he was worried about Momo, then he blew me off. He said we'd go out for ice-c-cream, and I'd already had a rotten day, but he didn't c-c-care. He was more worried about Momo-ch-ch-chan!"
His sister held him tightly, until the racking sobs subsided, and then she pulled away from him, grabbing her brother's hands as she looked into his puffy red eyes, "I'm sorry you've had such a rough day, Ji-ji. It'll get better, I promise. It's natural for you all to be upset about Momoshiro, you're such a close-knit team. Have you ever thought that Oishi might be having a rough time dealing with all of this? I know you've been pretty uptight lately, and he tries to do everything he can to make everyone happy, so he's probably pretty stressed in this situation. I've seen his reactions when he has to cancel plans with you, you know as well as I do he absolutely hates to. Did he explain to you why?"
Eiji took a deep breath, "I didn't let him. But I heard Ryuzaki-sensei suggest it."
His sister gave him a pointed look, "Eiji. You know Oishi absolutely cannot say no to his senseis. She requested that he check on Momo, so he felt obligated to."
The younger Kikumaru sniffled, glaring at his sister, "Don't you side with him too!" he shouted, picking up a pillow and smacking her with it.
She grabbed the pillow from his hands and wrapped him into another hug, gently stroking his hair, "I'm not siding with him Eiji. I'm just asking you to calm down long enough to see things from Oishi's perspective. I know your feelings have been hurt, but if you won't give him the chance to explain or apologize, nothing will ever get solved."
After being held by his sister for a long while, Eiji pulled away, a mixture of hurt and guilt in his eyes, "I've been pretty unreasonable all this time, nya?"
His sister smiled at him, "No more than usual Ji-ji. Oishi's dealt with it before, he'll understand it again."
Eiji glanced down at the bedspread, not meeting her gaze, "I should have been there for him, I know how stressed he gets about things like this. Instead I just made everything worse."
His sister tilted his chin up, looking into his eyes, "There's no good in moping about it Eiji, you just need to go fix things with Oishi. It'll work out, don't worry."
Eiji's eyes sparkled a little as he grinned, "Ne-san, you know just what to say. I'll go talk to Syuichirou right now, nya!"
His sister returned the smile, until she looked closer at the energetic boy, "Eiji…what happened to your cheek? It's all red."
She watched her younger sibling fidget, "Oh, that? That's nothing. I just, we were practicing today, and I went to hit the ball, and I fell!" he rambled, "But it's no big deal, nya. I'm going to go talk to Oishi now, okay?"
His sister looked at him skeptically, "That doesn't look like a fall to me, and there are fingerprints on your cheek…" Eiji raced to the door as his sister pieced two and two together.
"Kikumaru Eiji!" he heard her shriek as he ran down the stairs, "Oishi had better not have hit you! Come back here now!" But by the time she had finished, he had already slammed the door and was halfway down the street.
Eiji knocked on the door of his boyfriend's house, only to be told that Oishi wasn't home.
"He said something about needing to go think for a while, I'm sorry I can't tell you more." Oishi's mother said gently.
Eiji thought for a moment, "That's perfect, arigato gozaimasu!" he exclaimed excitedly as he ran off. He knew exactly where Oishi would go when he needed to think, especially about things concerning the golden pair.
As he approached the giant green bin, Eiji quietly snuck up behind it, deftly jumping onto it without making a sound. He looked at the boy sitting on its edge; head buried in his hands, shoulders slumped in defeat. Eiji quietly walked over to the edge of the bin, before sitting down next to his partner and placing a comforting hand on his back.
Oishi looked up in surprise at the redhead next to him, "What are you doing here?" he asked cautiously.
"This is where we always come to think about what we've done wrong." Eiji answered quietly, taking his boyfriend's hand in his own.
"Then you're not…"
"No, I'm not angry anymore." Eiji interrupted, "I actually came to apologize, nya."
Oishi looked at him in disbelief, "I thought I'd lost you. What do you mean apologize? This whole thing is my fault, I haven't been there for you, I made you a promise to support you forever and I blew it. I was just so stressed about Momo, and then you got upset when I had to cancel our date to go see him, and he wasn't even at home, so that stressed me out more, but that's no excuse. You should hate me for what I did this afternoon alone, everything else should just make it worse...mmph."Oishi's words were muffled as Eiji captured his lips with his own.
"I should." Eiji nodded after breaking this kiss, "But I don't. Because that's not my Syuichirou. It wouldn't have happened if I hadn't taunted you, I deserved to be hit, nya." Upon seeing the taller boy begin to protest, Eiji continued, "We've all been stressed because of Momo missing practice, and we all reacted to it differently. I didn't even realize how much it effected me until ne-san pointed it out. You've especially had so much trouble dealing with it, and instead of supporting you I've made things more difficult." The redhead laughed, "It's just you care way too much Oishi…wait, I take that back, I love that you care so much. I just don't always understand it. You're my partner, so I'm used to getting your attention, and you knew that when you said yes to dating me. So I'm not apologizing for who I am, I'm apologizing for letting my own drama get in the way of us."
Oishi stared at his boyfriend for a long while, and Eiji bit his lip nervously. Eventually, the vice-captain wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, "I'm so sorry Eiji."
"I know you are," Eiji grinned, "so am I."
Oishi pulled back from the hug, giving his boyfriend a quick kiss before asking with a smile, "So does this mean you'll do me the honor of playing tennis with me again?"
Eiji gave his boyfriend a look, "Well duh Syu. How else are we going to become the best in all of Japan?" he jumped up, standing on top of the great big container and shouting to the world, "We're going to win nationals! Number one!"
Oishi laughed, "Do you have to do that every time we come here?" he asked cheerfully as he slid onto the ground.
"Until you do it with me, of course, nya!" Eiji replied, ignoring the hand held out to him in preference of flipping off the bin. The redhead, upon landing on the ground, flung his arm around the shoulders of his boyfriend and looked him in the eye, exclaiming, "Forever's forever."
Oishi smiled, draping his arm around Eiji's shoulder and remembering the pact the two had made to be doubles partners forever, "Hai. Forever's forever."
I hope you enjoyed it! Golden-Pair is so very fluffy on their own I can't help but write fluff. Apologies for OOC-ness, reviews appreciated, all that lovely jazz. Or rock. Or whatever music floats your boat. But I digress. Again, thanks for reading!
