His parents have been friends with Sanada Genichirou's parents for years. When he's less out of Hawaii, more permanently living within Japan, they actually meet and talk, because now they have a similar interest: tennis.
"Before, I thought you were into kendo," Yanagi says, and Sanada shrugs a little, hefting his tennis bag higher up onto his shoulder.
"I was. I mean, I still am," he firmly defends. "I'm at the top of my division, but it's not as enjoyable when it's done competitively. I think I'll stop, when I start middle school…"
That's a couple of years from now, so Yanagi expects to hear more about it in spades-and in spite of talking about how kendo isn't as fun when done competitively, Sanada is all about the tennis tournament today, wherein he practically bounces on his way to the court.
"Sanada! Sanada, here!"
"Yukimura-kun!"
Yanagi's eyebrows climb.
First of all, -kun? A second glance confirms it, but still. Second of all, the reason for the bounce in Sanada's step is a ball of energy himself, shorter and leaner and tinier than both of them, with a head of dark curls and wide, violet eyes. There's a whipcord strength to the way he moves, to the way he launches himself at Sanada, even, and slings an arm around his neck, laughing and taunting him, and Yanagi's head tilts nearly horizontal.
Sanada scowls at him, eventually, when Yukimura is done chattering about the line-up of competitors. "This is my friend, Yukimura," he introduces, and Yukimura bows, quickly and carelessly, the waves of his hair swaying with him.
"Yukimura Seiichi-it's nice to meet you!"
"Yanagi Renji." He smiles. "Just Renji is fine."
Sanada's friend, apparently, is very good, and sweeps their division in the tournament with an ease that leaves even Yanagi staring. Sanada doesn't seem to mind coming in second. That's a new one in and of itself.
"It's not like you to like being around such energetic people," Yanagi mildly observes, and Sanada scowls at him again, shoving at his bangs as they walk home. Yukimura, apparently, lives in the opposite direction, and Sanada had looked thoroughly upset about not being able to walk with him. It must be a weekly conflict.
"Yukimura's different."
Is he.
Yanagi is a good observer. It's what makes him an excellent sportsman in the long run, and a good judge of character in almost every circumstance.
Yukimura, he judges, is excellent for Sanada. He verges on the hyperactive side of the scale at times, and ends up dragging Sanada along for the ride throughout all of it. Sanada protests, even cries sometimes, but ends up enjoying himself at the end. But for all his outgoing nature, Yukimura can be subdued, especially when he's sprawled out on the floor of Sanada's bedroom, sketchbook in hand. "Sanada's a lot better at calligraphy than me," he hums, swiping a mess of eraser shreds off of the paper with the back of his hand. "But he's not gonna beat me at drawing."
The drawing of the three of them ends up tacked to the wall, and Yanagi tries very hard not to think of Hawaii, and Inui.
At least he's not alone here.
Let it be known that Yanagi Renji is exceptionally good at catching goldfish at festivals, Yukimura at riding on Sanada's back, and Sanada at seeing through the bags of fish dangled in front of his face.
"I got another confession today. She was cute this time!"
Yanagi has found a new favorite past time: looking at the expressions on Sanada's face when Yukimura talks about the girls at his school. It doesn't happen often, but it's akin to birdwatching-finding a rare animal and staking out for the thrill of a long, entertaining observation.
"What about you, Renji?" Yukimura hums, rolling onto his back with his head lolling over the side of his bed. "We all go to different schools, so at least we don't have to be each other's competition."
"You shouldn't talk about girls like that," Sanada lowly insists, flushing hot beneath his grandfather's hat that he has trouble taking off even indoors.
"Why not?"
"I'm saving myself," Yanagi diplomatically puts in, opening his notebook. "And you, Genichirou? Seiichi is right, at least we aren't each other's competition."
"I'm too busy for dating!"
"And the moon is beautiful, isn't it?" Yanagi mutters underneath his breath as Yukimura does an flip off of the bed and lands on Sanada's back.
Rikkaidai Fuzoku is the goal, and the goal within that goal is to make it to Nationals.
"They won't let you be captain your freshman year, Seiichi," Yanagi tells him, and Yukimura shrugs, folding his arms over his chest. Yanagi is, in fact, very sure they'd be angrier knowing that Yukimura is actually the age equivalent of an elementary school student still.
"It doesn't matter. We'll still win everything."
They do, and it's astonishing how many upperclassmen still stay along for the ride. In theory, they'd all quit courtesy of vanquished pride. They aren't the most useful by far, however, and it's another freshman that pops up, hands stuffed in his pockets, hair bleached to white, and Yanagi can sense the upturn of Sanada's nose before he sees it.
"You didn't write your given name on your club form," Sanada irritably points out.
"Yeah. I don't like it."
Niou Masaharu always does put his worst foot first. Yukimura thinks it's funny. That bodes well (except for when Sanada is concerned).
They meet in Sanada's homeroom every day after practice and during lunch to discuss tennis, because Sanada refuses to chance the possibility of being late by meeting in either of theirs.
Yanagi mentions that his parents run a boarding house that's out in the middle of nowhere. Yukimura's eyes gleam with the mention of wilderness, and Sanada blanches, his brow furrowing deeply.
The training camp for the nationals ends up being there, of course, and they all learn that Sanada apparently is very tasty to mosquitos.
Inui is going to Seishun Gakuen, apparently, and Yanagi isn't entirely certain why he feels so betrayed.
He'd hoped that Inui was still just in Hawaii, and that's why he hadn't seen him. He'd hoped, but he was wrong, and he hears rumors of him along with the rest of Seigaku's promising tennis club.
"Ooh, don't talk about them around Sanada," Yukimura laughs, leaning back against the chain mail fence surrounding the tennis courts. "Tezuka goes there."
Yanagi doesn't talk about them to Sanada, but he goes and observes one of their practice matches all the same. Inui doesn't notice him, which is for the best, and he leaves with a notebook full of information and a reaffirmation that he's at the right school, he's with the right friends, and he has enough on his plate to deal with without worrying what Inui is doing.
But at least he looks good, and has improved, and will be solid competition later.
Seigaku doesn't even place in the prefecturals, so there goes the fantasy of having Inui as proper competition.
There's not much of a challenge even all the way to the Nationals, and Yukimura leads them the whole way without fail, no matter how he isn't the captain.
Yanagi is polite, and pretends not to see afterwards when Yukimura is teasing about Sanada's inability to take a picture without frowning, and finally smiles after Yukimura kisses him full on the mouth behind their shiny new trophy.
(Yanagi thinks of Inui, fondly, and smiles a little, too.)
Yukimura steals Sanada's hat afterwards and won't give it back, and Sanada sulks for the ride home instead. So much for smiles.
The third years retire, and that leaves room on the regulars.
Niou is a persistent and always-present anomaly. Yukimura thinks he's hilarious, Sanada wants to kill him, and Yanagi wonders how he's supposed to collect data on a person that never acts the same twice. It's intriguing. He likes it. They also tend to play a good doubles game together.
For the other doubles slot, it ends up being a somewhat bouncy redhead and his foreigner friend. They're nothing special when they're separate, but together, they're solid and Yukimura likes both of them. On top of this, they fit right in, especially after practice when there's nothing left to do but relax in the clubhouse and consider where to go and eat.
"Ah, so," Marui, the redhead, pipes up. "Does anyone have a girlfriend?"
Silence. He clears his throat. "Just wondering, because-"
"Ask Sanada; he's an expert with girls," Yukimura sagely offers, to which Sanada turns an astonishing bright red. Yanagi writes down a note about it.
"Really? Ah, but, actually," Marui says, worrying his lower lip. "It's more about-"
"Bunta," Jackal snarls, shaking him by the shoulder, and everything devolves into chaos for a moment before Niou is the one to bluntly provide:
"Is it about guys?"
Silence.
"Cuz I know a lot about that."
Marui sags in relief, Yukimura looks a mix amused and interested, Jackal mortified, and Sanada still as red as he possibly can be. Yanagi just takes notes. One never knows when this conversation might prove useful in the future.
Their second year, and Yukimura is officially their captain. Everything goes much more smoothly, just as planned.
Yanagi likes when things line up and make sense. There's a reason why he's the appointed treasurer without a second's hesitation, and there's also a reason why the tennis club always has more than enough money to do everything they possibly could want.
Kirihara's appearance shakes things up somewhat. His challenge notice is comical at best, but Yukimura likes him (as he tends to like troublesome things), and no matter Sanada's protests, decides to take him underneath his wing.
They win the Nationals again. It's worth it.
For not the first time, Yanagi notices the distance Yukimura and Sanada put between themselves and nearly everyone else, and the way they linger in the clubroom by themselves, or walk home alone. Rarely is he asked along for ice cream or over to their houses, unless the rest of the team is there, too.
He hears their whispers, occasionally finds their passed notes between classes in the hallway, and is a good enough friend not to comment on the veritable notebook they each have filled with scraps of paper from the other-in Yukimura's, it's poems and calligraphy, and in Sanada's, it's sketches and essays and plans.
It reminds him of the notebooks he and Inui had once, and Yanagi reminisces at home that night by finding the thing stashed in his closet.
If one collects data properly, then changes, even day to day, even hourly, should be able to be reflected accurately.
In the case of Yukimura, however, Yanagi doubts himself.
He's never dropped a game in an official match. He rarely drops a game in an unofficial match, and Yanagi finds it remarkable. There's nothing spectacular about his serve, which is what young players often try and focus on, but there's an easy grace to everything else that he does, a precision and a perfection without being stiff or stilted or predictable.
The numbers start suggesting that is lessening over time, and Yanagi thinks he's doing something wrong.
It isn't until after they return from China and Yukimura collapses on a train platform that he realizes how he's known for months.
Sanada is a mess, and there's nothing he can do about it.
Kirihara doesn't seem to quite process it, and like a child, keeps wondering when Yukimura will be back, when he'll be practicing normally again, when he can beat him at his full strength.
Niou is shockingly rock solid, tells Kirihara to shut up, tells Marui and Jackal and Yagyuu to keep on task, and gives Sanada a slap on the back and calls him vice-captain for the first time since Yanagi can remember.
Yanagi isn't quite certain what he's supposed to be.
Yukimura is in and out of the hospital so many times that Yanagi loses count, and finally, he's just in, staying there indefinitely, not talking about his illness if he can help it-especially not talking about it when the whole team of regulars visits.
"Honestly, the worst part about all of this is there's no privacy," he sighs, slumping backwards against a pile of pillows that Sanada has piled up at least four times for him now. "Please tell me you guys are having fun in my absence."
"Yagyuu came so hard the other day that he fell off the bed," Niou idly offers.
"Niou-kun!"
"What? You did."
"Gross. I don't wanna hear about your wet dreams, Yagyuu-sempai-"
"Ah," Yukimura deadpans, "let's all remember there are children here, everyone." On cue, Sanada moves to slap Niou, who deftly dodges.
Kirihara snarls. "I'm not a kid!"
"Technically," Yanagi mildly says, "he's only a few months younger than you, Seiichi-"
Yukimura makes a face. "Shut up, Renji."
Time goes on, and Yukimura gets worse.
The tennis courts, no matter that they are on them what feels like hours more daily, are empty and quiet and soulless.
No one lingers in the locker rooms, no one makes plans about what to do after practice, unless it's stop by the hospital, and after awhile, everyone starts to dread that, too.
I'm scared.
The night before the Kantou, the night before Yukimura's surgery, and Yanagi finds himself staring down at his phone, his breath caught heavily in his chest. It's rare that Yukimura texts just him. It worries him.
About the surgery? Or us losing?
I'm not sure what I'm scared of more.
They lose the Kantou. Yanagi is one of the reasons why, and he's never felt so guilty before in his life.
Inui is flawless. Inui knows him backwards and forwards, and Yanagi doesn't know Inui anymore. He is the reason that Yukimura wakes up and breaks down sobbing, he's the reason that Sanada comes back to the clubhouse and demands everyone slap him harder than they ever have before.
It's also his fault because he saw all of this coming over a year ago, and he should have said something, he should have done something, and maybe they would have caught on to Yukimura's illness earlier and been able to stop all of this from happening.
All he can do the day Yukimura returns is bow with his forehead pressed to the ground, his shoulders shaking. "It isn't your fault," Yukimura says, confused, tired, a little exasperated. "Renji, I don't blame you."
That helps, a little bit, but Yanagi is certain he could have done something differently. He'll do something differently now, if nothing else.
The chance of Yukimura winning any official match against National-level players is about 12.32 percent. No one wants to hear it, and so Yanagi shuts up about that.
Yukimura loses the only match he plays in, and Yanagi doesn't want to hear any of the fights he and Sanada will inevitably have.
The fights don't happen, and the silence, actually, is worse.
Kirihara, no matter how Yukimura asked him, gently, to stop crying, can't seem to stop, and Yanagi's jersey is soaked through by the time they return back to the school.
"Captain!"
Yanagi wants to tell Kirihara to hush, to leave it be for now, but he throws himself at Yukimura the moment they're off the bus, anyway, clinging to him hard and fast. It's shocking, honestly, to see them this close, because Kirihara is taller now, broader, and with the way he grabs at Yukimura and squeezes him, looks a dozen times over the captain that Yukimura was before.
"I'm going to win your medal back, you'll see!"
No amount of calculations can figure out how tightly Yukimura holds onto Kirihara just then, or how tearfully happy Kirihara looks when Yukimura wraps him up in his jersey and smothers him to his chest once more.
"We've raised a good son," Niou wisely puts in. Yukimura chokes on a wet laugh. Sanada, yanking down the brim of his cap, moves to slap him, and Niou knocking over Marui and Jackal in the process of hiding behind Yagyuu is more normalcy than they've had in nearly a year.
Yanagi feels a little less guilty, a little more relieved.
Maybe he'll call Inui tonight.