A/N: I know I have to update Auburn Legend and Shinigami Days, but I felt like I need to get this out today. This is my three-shot contest entry for the Imaginations: Unleashed forums' challenge called "Three Words to Three", with the keywords the mods chose. College is still my priority, so please don't poke me too much with demands like "UPDATE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, blah blah blah blah…" Patience is a virtue. I WILL update this. I just don't know when. And hey, this is my first attempt on EijiSaku, so reviews will be appreciated very much. ♥

DISCLAIMER: Konomi Takeshi owns them all.

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LIKE A CHILD
© Doctor Meowzie

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Oishi.

Being childish and child-like are actually two very different things; the former describes the surface—acting like a kid, speaking like a kid, thinking like a kid and being like a kid. Play toys, play tag, play Chinese garter and jack stones and dolls and toy cars. They wouldn't care about anything else as long as they're happy, and as long as everyone is happy. The latter, however, is about what is beneath this surface. It meant that one who is has the values of a child. He has the innocence of the child, the transparency of a child, the purity of a child—and in short, possesses the heart of a child. So few are the adolescents and teenagers nowadays who are child-like, for everywhere we perceive, all persons seem tainted in one way or another. They may be mature, but this maturity might have done nothing to immunize the individual from such evils the world has been infected with.

The good thing about childish and child-like persons is that they are very easy to spot from the rest who aren't. Whatever complications in personality these certain people have, their child's traits will always emerge in everything they do, be it from a simple everyday mannerism to a big decision they have to make. Their transparency makes it possible.

However, analyzing matters like these was not Oishi's forte. True, he had come up with the aforementioned postulates; but really, he himself couldn't quite understand how he ended up with those. It may have been his mother-like instincts—so what if he had a mother's intuition of all intuitions; it was a plus in his part, so no big deal—that helped him formulate the idea…

…or the fact that observing the other half of the Golden Pair was a piece of cake.

He couldn't help but sigh every time he saw Eiji looking all happy and jumpy on one second, then restless and moody the next. It was as if he was a woman who was about to throw things randomly in frustration during heavy mood swings, but at the same time, he looked like he was just a child who, when not given a candy, gets mad and has to sulk in self pity until his ever ephemeral emotions shift phases again.

Yes, just like a child.

So here's the daily dose of some kind of a show he would always see, centered on the one and only Kikumaru Eiji.

Happy redhead Eiji would always be seen giving every one of the regulars his Kikumaru Glomps—with the exception of Tezuka and Ryuzaki-sensei, that is. He would echo "Hoi Hoi!" and "Nyah!" like the cat that he supposedly acts like. When in the classroom, Fuji claims he would chat away with almost everyone in the classroom, do more glomp attacks and perform the puppy dog eyes of doom to copy other people's homework (it has never failed). And when he plays tennis, he gets all hyper and active, and in short hyperactive, twisting and turning his flexible body around in the courts, jumping a jump with a height that only Hyoutei's Mukahi Gakuto can match.

It may have been unseen, but there were gaping holes in that paragraph; be grateful, for our dear Oishi Syuichiroh will fill them in for you.

Ever since their third year in high school started, Eiji had acted differently. Especially around certain persons—two people, in fact.

This was the year when their kohai, Echizen Ryoma, had entered his first year in high school. Now that he was fifteen and even more so had his masculine attractiveness developed, more and more fangirls had made their presence known to mankind, some of which going as far as to kissing the grounds that his athletic feet had treaded upon. And so the Echizen spawn's life continued; almost everything was an encore of his first year in Seigaku junior high school—tennis, fangirl tolerating, tennis, eating burgers with Momo-senpai and even his daily doses of Eiji-senpai's holy glomps and "Ochibi"-s.

There—this is what was different, and a weird one at that. If Oishi recalls very well, three years back Eiji would always direct affectionate gestures towards the baby of the group. Eiji still did those, but now, on a less frequent basis. And never, never in his whole life in Seishun Gakuen had Oishi seen the acrobat throw a full glare towards Echizen. He couldn't believe it either, but whether he could or not, Oishi swore he saw Eiji glare at the tennis prince. He was forced to believe that, because his glaring would always be followed by either a pouting, moody, sulky, angry Eiji or an Eiji that can win straight games in a row that most likely was brought about by his murderous mood and full determination to beat the crap out of something. Oishi's suspicions were always justified that way.

But why would the redhead glare at the Ochibi he'd always been fond of?

Pretty soon, Oishi had the very answer to the query presented right before his eyes.

One fateful day, when the Golden Pair were doing research in the library, they came across the very person who most probably was the cause of it all.

Of course, back then, Oishi had not a clue on what was going on. Neither did he have the slightest idea of who else was involved aside from Eiji and Ryoma. And so, epiphany had dawned to clear away the clouds of his mind when he spotted a petite girl reaching out for a book that was situated on a very high shelf, and had voiced it.

"Eiji, isn't that Ryuzaki-chan? Oh dear, she needs help…"

The round-headed regular was about to approach said girl to aid her in her minor dilemma, but halted without having set off on his second foot when he noticed his partner stand motionless on his spot, eyes in a daze, and mouth slightly hanging—Oishi almost gasped when he realized that the redhead was actually staring at the girl's back, girl being Ryuzaki Sakuno.

Oishi knew what it meant, all thanks to his intuition. He knew that for Eiji, time seemed to have stopped along with everyone else but him and the object of his current fascination. Here the acrobat might've been savoring the noble sight of a brown-haired girl with two beautiful pigtails, not believing what he was seeing, and had become temporarily mute and void of responding to all other objects his senses perceive except the girl.

The girl was standing on tiptoe, trying to get a hold of a book that sat on the highest shelf. In her desperation, she leapt by reflex and was able to grab the edge of her target, but in turn the other books that were placed along the very same shelf threatened to fall right at her face. Oishi can just imagine her normally big eyes widen more as one by one, each book slowly slipped off the shelf and went straight at her face. Ryuzaki, being a naturally slow girl, did not move from her spot—it was then that Oishi noticed Eiji finally snap out from his trance and dash towards the girl to keep her away from the several falling books.

He dared not to look as sounds of thick, hard-bound and paperback books landed on the library floor with dull, consecutive 'THUD'-s. When all was over, he cracked open an eye, and was surprised to see that instead of pushing Ryuzaki out of the way, Eiji had actually shielded her from them, which means…

"K-K-Kikumaru-s-senpai!"

Oishi tried his best not to make any kind of comment on what beheld his eyes—there, right in the library where not many people are currently around, Eiji was on his hands and knees, with Ryuzaki beneath him.

He watched as Eiji slowly opened his eyes, only to meet a pair of dark chocolate orbs stare right back at him, evidently wide and surprised.

It was a good thing that Oishi was able to keep his cool, and even more a good thing that Eiji fast forwarded, skipped all the mush and drama, and immediately pulled away to let the small girl sit straight. He was red as a tomato, but it paled in comparison to what Sakuno looked right now. She was burning like a steaming teapot and her face was painted a deep, crimson red blush. Eiji muttered a string of incoherent words that most likely were his apologies before quickly standing on his feet.

She held her book close against her chest and looked up when the redhead held out a hand to help her up. Gratefully taking it, she stood up, dusted her uniform a little, and bowed nervously.

"An-Anou… gomen, K-K-Kikumaru-senpai… I'm s-so clumsy… anou, d-does your back hurt? I-I mean, uhm…" her adorable blush was still there.

She and Oishi expected Kikumaru to charmingly scratch the back of his head and cheerfully say, "Don't mind, don't mind!" at her apology, and both were almost about to forever open their mouths in awe when Kikumaru defied their expectations by looking away in diffidence and even bashfully saying, "I-I-Iie… it's no big deal." And he was stuttering too.

She couldn't help but blink to check her vision. "Ano… really…?!" Here she suddenly perked up amidst her surprise and her long braids waved a little.

His exceedingly sharp eyesight seemed to try not to watch the movements of her braids, but its attempt was futile. "Hai… Really."

Oishi intercepted their awkward conversation and offered that he and Eiji help Sakuno place the books back to where they were, after which Sakuno bowed again and now, with her blush gone to be replaced by a radiant smile, she beamed.

"Arigatou, Oishi-senpai, Kikumaru-senpai. Gomen again for the trouble I caused."

Sensing that no word might come from Eiji's throat, Oishi smiled at her and replied, "No, it's okay, Ryuzaki-chan. Next time, do try to ask help, okay?"

"Hai!" she enthusiastically responded. "Uhm… I'll be on my way, senpai-tachi. I need to find Ryoma-kun… see you around…!"

With one last bow, she hurried off and disappeared behind a shelf, her long braids being the last they saw of her that day.

That day—Oishi still remembered the scowl that graced the redhead's face after she had said she'll be off to find Ryoma-kun. And on one instance, he and Eiji were hanging out when they again spotted Ryuzaki at a random place, this time with Echizen Ryoma. They were sitting leisurely and quietly under a cherry tree—a cherry tree of all places—and needless to say, after that, Eiji alone had beaten Momoshiro-Kaidoh pair at the practice match that followed and immediately yelled "Who's next?!" afterwards. Who knew the bubbly acrobat could be that scary when jealous?

Yes, jealous. He was obviously jealous. And Eiji didn't seem to know how to deal with that feeling of his every time he sees their ochibi and Ryuzaki hanging out together. He truly was a childish individual.

As of now, it was lunch time, and they were sitting at Ryuzaki-sensei's office, waiting for her to come through the door at any minute from now. Oishi wanted to speak with their coach, and Eiji decided to tag along. While on the wait, Eiji was trying to answer his math homework. His notebook lay in front of him, opened at the spread where lines, numbers, and expressions were written all over. He was in one of his bad moods (Oishi recalled coming across Echizen that morning when he was with Eiji, and the freshman was actually looking for Ryuzaki, much to their surprise), with one hand supporting his chin and the other impatiently spinning a pencil between its thumb and index finger. No matter how hard he tries to concentrate, Eiji looked like he won't be able to do homework anytime soon.

Oishi found that he himself was bored as well, and so found the spinning pencil in Eiji's right hand quite an interesting sight to see. His eyes never left the object for a long time, until it suddenly stopped its repetitive movement. Wondering what was up, Oishi shot a questioning glance at the redhead, who stared ahead of him with a face that was determined to do something… whatever that something is.

"I need a miracle."

He almost fell back. "E-Eiji…?"

"I need a miracle… just… urgh!!! Anything that can make me happy!!!" he fisted some of his red locks in frustration.

Oishi looked at the distressed acrobat, wondering what miracle his partner might be needing. 'Sigh. Such a child indeed.'

But if the miracle was what he thought it really was, he'd really best not intervene with the Involved. Besides, he was no matchmaker.

TBC