Seven Days
Monday
Morning: Marui
"Yo."
Marui didn't have eyes at the back of his head, no matter how awesome he constantly claimed he was, so he naturally had to turn to see who was talking to him from behind.
"Oh. Niou. Hey." The redhead yawned widely, not bothering to be polite. It was six in the morning. He had every right to be yawning.
The trickster fell into step beside Marui. "Gum?"
"Doesn't seem to work till six-thirty," replied Marui, yawning again.
"Ah." Niou nodded. "No wonder."
"Yeah, you're unnaturally early today," noted the redhead. "I'm normally awake by the time you turn up."
"Mm." Niou hooked his hands in his pockets. "Yeah. Just wanted to… ask you something."
"Eh?" Even in his not-quite-awake state, Marui could tell this was not normal. He and Niou weren't all that close. They were teammates, sure, and they could complain to each other about homework and teachers and Sanada's most recent torture method disguised as training without much problem. That did not mean that they were BFFs who shared their deepest darkest secrets and talked on the phone late into the night, every night. Marui was understandably surprised to have Niou coming to him for what looked like life counseling. That was the kind of face the trickster was wearing – furrowed brows, troubled eyes, mouth reluctantly framing the words of the request.
"Erm… Niou?" Marui ventured cautiously. This was dangerous ground. He was handling an unknown entity. It had to be handled carefully, or it might just blow his head off. "You sure you got the right person? You look serious, and if it's something serious, you'd be talking to Yagyuu, not me. Or else you're not Niou – you're some shape-shifting alien who wants to get close enough to eat me and you're masquerading as one of my teammates. What did you do with Niou?"
Niou laughed. It sounded as though it had popped out against his will – sudden, but somehow still natural, and cut off as suddenly as it began. The redhead became even more suspicious. Niou was the kind who could pull off movie-style evil laughter. He never cut off his own laughter; he laughed until people told him to shut up, then continued laughing just to piss those people off. "Hey, I'm serious. You can't be Niou. You are so un-Niou-like I think I ought to file a report to whatever alien agency sent you and tell them that you need more training before you can go around impersonating people."
"That bad?" The silver-haired boy smiled, but for some reason it didn't look particularly happy.
"Ah! You admit you're an alien! Oh my shit, I've caught an alien!" Marui grabbed his teammate by the shoulders and started shaking him. "Come on, show your true self!"
"Hey, hey, stop! I'm not an alien!" Niou was laughing again, but this time he didn't try to stop himself. "Marui, you ass! Stop it!"
The redhead stopped, but didn't let go of Niou's shoulders just on the off chance he really was an alien. "So… what's up? Apart from the sky?"
"Well, right now we've got a tree up there too," replied the trickster, grinning.
Marui let go of Niou. "Right, you're not an alien. Aliens don't make such lame comebacks. They'd have been trained to make good jokes, since alien civilization is so much more advanced than ours."
"So if there really was a shape-shifter who claims to be one of us, we'd have to prove who's the real one by checking who makes the lamer comeback to a lame joke?" inquired Niou, straightening his clothes.
"Yeah, something like that," agreed the redhead, straight-faced.
Niou shook his head as they started walking again, in disbelief or in amusement, it was impossible to tell. "Anyway…"
"Mmhmm?" Marui prompted when the trickster didn't continue immediately.
"… is it true that you have a new girlfriend every week?" asked Niou, not quite meeting Marui's eyes.
The redhead blinked in surprise. To think Niou got so keyed up on something so… well, perhaps not insignificant, but certainly not as earth-shattering as he'd expected. In his mind's eye, Niou's image developed a series of tiny cracks. "Erm… yeah, but I thought that was old news already."
A ghost of his trademark grin flitted across the trickster's face. "I just wanted to confirm."
"Right. Is that all?" Marui asked. He was sure it wasn't. Whatever was bothering Niou, it was definitely something big, to shake to pieces the normally unshakeable Niou.
The trickster still didn't look up. "Well, no. Why don't they hate you, if you always dump them after a week?"
Marui tossed his head. "Because I'm so awesome. If they stuck around me for more than seven days, they would die of my awesomeness." Sea-green eyes that were not at all amused met his, and he sighed. "Okay, okay. Honestly? I have no idea. But I do my best to be a good boyfriend. I mean, you never know, I might just fall in love with one of them. Better to be safe than sorry."
"Then why only one week?" persisted Niou.
"Because it's a nice round length of time," replied the redhead, grinning. More seriously, he added, "Well, that's only part of it. I'm thinking, a week's long enough to find out if I really like her. Besides, we're only young once. I want to get to know more people, all kinds of different people. If not, how would I know what kind of person I like? I don't believe in those 'first love, forever love' kind of ideals. For all you know, there might be someone better out there, someone you never met because you were too busy with the first person. So I don't choose who I go out with. Whoever asks me first that week, I will date. If I'm not interested after the first week, I move on. That's all there is to it."
"That's…" The silver-haired trickster paused, searching for words.
"Harsh?" supplied Marui. "Maybe. But I think it works. I can't imagine what it would be like if I had to stick with the first girl I dated until now. She was a real terror – kept taking photos of us together just so she could show off to her jealous friends."
"No," interrupted Niou. "I was going to say, that's kind of interesting. That system of yours."
Again, Marui found himself stumped. "Eh? For real?"
Niou nodded. "Yeah. Maybe I should try it out too. Or maybe…" He trailed off, looking thoughtful.
They were within sight of the tennis courts. The usual crowd of girls was starting to form, too. Marui couldn't understand them at all – who in their right minds would show up at school three hours early just to cheer the tennis team? Then again, there was no proof that fangirls were sane in the first place. And the tennis team was awesome. It deserved devoted fans, which those girls definitely were.
Unfortunately, because of this devotion, most of his confessions came from these very fangirls. He was honestly getting tired of accepting the first confession of the day – after a while, all of these girls seemed the same. Staring star-struck at him, unable to hold a decent conversation, doing everything short of raping him (happily he had managed to avoid such a situation so far, thanks to the muscles he had built from tennis, but there was always the possibility), all in the name of their love for their idol. He had been as nice – as boyfriend-like – to them as he could possibly be, but it was getting very difficult to keep up the façade when sometimes he longed to slap them across the face and to hell with gentlemanliness.
"Hey Marui. You accept the first confession you get, no matter who it's from?" Niou's voice cut through the redhead's miserable reflections.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, I do," he confirmed. "No matter who it is. But I'm starting to –"
"What if it's me?" interrupted the trickster.
Marui froze. That couldn't be right. His ears must have been mistaken. He turned, slowly, to face his companion. "… Say what?"
"Go out with me," said Niou, staring straight into Marui's shocked eyes.
"W-wait, you're having me on, right? This isn't funny, Niou. Stop the joke. I know you don't actually want to date me. I mean, like, we're… guys? Well, I guess that's kind of accepted nowadays, but… Niou? You're planning to go have a good laugh later on, right? You're joking, right? Tell me you're joking," pleaded the redhead. He wasn't so much afraid of the fact that it was a guy confessing to him, but more of the fact that it was Niou. Things involving Niou tended to be dangerous. Dating Niou was surely included in 'things involving Niou'. And the current very un-Niou-like Niou was making him even more wary.
'I'm not joking," replied the silver-haired boy. "Marui, go out with me. Please."
Marui's eyes widened. Please. Niou had said please. Niou was begging. The look in those aqua eyes, the tone of his voice, the words… Niou was begging him. Why, he had no idea, but no matter how much his common sense screamed that this was dangerous and he had to get out of this situation this very second, there was no way he could turn his back on Niou now.
He had never seen Niou so desperate… but desperate for what? He was pretty sure Niou didn't have some hidden, burning crush on him. That was just too weird. If Niou was crushing on anyone, it was Yagyuu… or wait. Maybe…?
"Niou –" Before Marui could ask further, the trickster covered his mouth with a hand. "Hey!" he protested, his voice muffled by the hand.
"You said you'd go out with the first person who asked you." Niou's eyes burned into Marui's. "Well, I'm asking you right now. Go out with me, Marui Bunta."
There really wasn't anything else he could do but nod. What the hell am I letting myself in for? He wondered, as the trickster took away his hand and headed for the tennis courts as though nothing was wrong. At least it's only for a week, thought the redhead as he followed.
~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~
Morning: Niou
Why the hell did I do that? Niou berated himself as he strode through the screaming crowd of girls outside the tennis courts. He wasn't even all that close to Marui. The redhead was always just another teammate. Sure, their team was all close and bonded and all, but Niou wasn't much of a group person. He was the so-called lone wolf. In less romantic terms, he didn't want people around him all the time. Alone time was good for the health. Really, it was.
Then Yagyuu had come into the picture.
Yup, the picture that used to consist of only Niou now had a new member. A person with purple hair and reflective spectacles. A person wearing clothes that looked as though they had been ironed not twenty seconds ago. A person holding a tennis racket in a golf pose.
In a word, Yagyuu.
Niou used to be a singles player. He had sucked at doubles. Really sucked. It wasn't because he was a lousy player – it was because he rubbed his partners off the wrong way. Then along came Yagyuu Hiroshi, and Niou was suddenly an amazing doubles player. He got along with Yagyuu like a house on fire.
The first time he set eyes on Yagyuu, Niou had been pissed off at the golfer's very existence. Yagyuu was too perfect – perfect grades, perfect posture, perfect behavior. Not at all like Niou. Yagyuu was Niou's image in a warped mirror that showed the opposite rather than the reflected replica. That he hated Yagyuu was natural – all beings resist the idea of themselves in reverse. A reference could possibly be made to how devils write the Lord's Prayer backwards and place it upside down to ward off angels.
Yet it is equally true that opposites attract. Inexplicably, inexorably, people seek in others what they lack in themselves, trying to find the other half of that elusive whole. In the same way, Niou hated and at the same time was fascinated by Yagyuu. On a comment by Yanagi that the team needed another sane person in order to function properly, Niou had seized the chance to recruit the golfer.
He had volunteered to teach Yagyuu, claiming that as the recruiter, training the recruit was his responsibility. Yukimura had given him an odd, calculating look, but nodded his approval in the end. The rest, as they say, was history – Yagyuu learned impossibly fast, soon becoming good enough to pound Niou into the dust, and was immediately accepted as a member of the team. Yukimura suggested they try playing doubles together, and from then on they were inseparable.
That had been three years ago, though.
Now…
"I love you, Hiroshi-kun. Do you love me too?"
"Yes. Yes, I love you, Miki-chan."
They were even silhouetted against the setting sun, like some cheesy tear-jerker drama or movie couple. Niou, as the indirectly rejected lover, should have clutched at his chest and howled at the moon, just visible on the other horizon.
What actually happened was that Niou had been stunned. For one, he hadn't realized his crush on his doubles partner was so bad he would really feel something inside break on viewing this scene. For another, he hadn't even realized he was crushing on his doubles partner. He'd thought it was friendship, best-friend-ship, partnership; whatever it was, it was completely fraternal and platonic. No weird wet dreams involving Yagyuu, no sudden desire to kiss his bespectacled doubles partner.
That was then. Now, though… seeing Yagyuu and the girl (he'd seen her before, he remembered the face if not the name, albeit vaguely) embracing, kissing, wrapped around each other as though they were never going to separate again, Niou felt a sudden burn of hatred for the girl. Yagyuu was his, dammit, and he didn't like to share. Then surprise took over – why was he so angry anyway? Then realization – oh fuck it all I'm in love with my best friend.
It was really quite pathetic, realizing it only at the time he was shown just how far out of reach the other person was.
When had he fallen for Yagyuu? Niou didn't know. He only knew it happened sometime between their becoming doubles partners and their becoming one of the best doubles pairs ever.
What was he going to do about it? Nothing. Yagyuu was in love with that girl (curse it all, who is she?). Niou knew Yagyuu well enough to know that Yagyuu did not lie when it came to feelings. When Yagyuu said he was pissed, you better paid attention because he really was pissed. If Yagyuu said he was in love with someone, he really was in love. And as much as he wanted Yagyuu to himself, Niou also wanted Yagyuu to be happy. Yagyuu looked mighty happy with that girl. Niou wasn't going to destroy that. It wasn't even as though he had been there first – he'd only just found out about his crush, while those two had been dating for quite a while, if memory served him correctly.
So, Niou had quietly left the couple and gone home to ponder his situation in solitude.
That had been on Friday.
The conclusion he had come to was the one he had acted upon today – ask Marui out.
It really was simple.
One: He was clearly gay, since he had crushed on Yagyuu and never looked twice at the many girls that surrounded him at school.
Two: He needed a boyfriend to get his mind off Yagyuu. Ever since Friday, he'd been plagued with images where he and not the girl was the one being embraced by Yagyuu. There were more images, ones that resulted in the aforementioned wet dreams. He needed to be distracted, that was obvious, and since he wasn't going to be getting Yagyuu anytime soon, he needed another person as a boyfriend.
Three: Since they'd entered high school, Marui had had a system by which he accepted the first proposal of the week and broke up with the person at the end of the week. He was also a teammate, which meant Niou knew him fairly well. It was perfect for his situation. He didn't have to waste time getting to know a stranger, and it was a short-term arrangement. Just right for a distraction.
And thus, Niou had gone for practice earlier than usual to catch Marui before practice. The redhead had been reluctant, but agreed in the end. The first hurdle was cleared.
The problem was what he was going to do now. He would have to face Yagyuu again, with the weight of his new feelings and knowledge. And he would have to face Marui, with the burden of his earlier words.
Niou leaned his head against the cold metal of his locker (by this time he had safely made it through the fangirls to the changing rooms). I guess normal is the way to go… though I might just have forgotten what's normal, in all this chaos.
He straightened, pulling on his jersey roughly. It wasn't going to be easy, but Niou Masaharu did like challenges.
~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~
Afternoon: Marui
Marui was snoozing in class, as usual, when his cell phone started vibrating insistently in his pocket. Cracking one eyelid, he fumbled for the phone and flipped it open.
Bored shitless. Entertain me.
- Niou
The redhead would have rolled his eyes if they were open. He quickly typed back.
I'm sleeping. You should too.
- Marui
He wasn't too sure whether he should be responding in quite such a way. He was supposed to be a boyfriend, and when in that role he would normally have taken up the request and chatted with his partner. However, this was Niou, and that made things a little… different. For one thing, girls weren't usually so demanding.
At least Niou seemed a bit more natural. During practice he'd seemed quite normal too, chatting easily with the other team members and teasing Akaya as usual. Not at all like the strange, almost neurotic person who had demanded that Marui go out with him. The redhead didn't know whether he liked the fact that Niou was back to normal, or freaked out by the fact that he had changed so quickly.
The phone vibrated again.
Can't. Had coffee earlier. I want to blow something up, not sleep.
- Niou
There was an ominous rumble, then a crash from somewhere down the corridor. Marui stifled a laugh. Niou must have really blown something up.
Chemistry class? Yanagi will never forgive you if you upset one of his precious experiments in that explosion =P
- Marui
"Marui-kun," called the teacher.
The redhead tucked away the cell phone and feigned sleep.
"Don't pretend to be asleep. If you're awake enough to be texting, you're awake enough to pay attention in class," admonished the teacher.
"Sensei, since I'm a genius anyway, it doesn't make much difference whether or not I sleep in class," complained Marui, to the appreciative laughter of his classmates.
The teacher, Yoshida-sensei shook her head. "If it doesn't matter either way, then I would much prefer if you stayed awake. Write the answers to questions twelve through thirty on the board, please."
Yawning, Marui dragged himself to the board. He was not so sleepy he forgot to bring his homework book along with him. With an extremely bored expression on his face, he proceeded to rapidly complete the task set to him. Done, he gave another face-splitting yawn as he trudged back to his seat.
"… Very well then, thank you Marui-kun. Everyone else, check that your answers tally," said Yoshida-sensei. By now she, like the other teachers, was accustomed to having Marui in her class. Getting him to provide the answers was more an exercise to keep him from going back to sleep immediately than a punishment as it was for other students.
Niou's reply had arrived in the meantime.
Yup. It was localized, so Yanagi's stuff is fine. I snuck something into Takagi-sensei's experimental setup. His eyebrows are singed now.
- Niou
Marui could easily picture the smirk that would have accompanied this message. The image of the chemistry teacher, Takagi-sensei (who had exceptionally thick eyebrows) with his famous eyebrows singed off, made him burst out laughing.
As he collapsed on his table, still giggling helplessly, Yoshida-sensei came over. "Would you like to share the joke with the class, Marui-kun?"
The redhead coughed, wiping away tears of laughter with the back of his hand. "Oh god I think I might've swallowed my gum…"
Jackal, sitting next to him, sighed and clapped his partner hard on the back, making him cough again. "Better?"
"Yeah, thanks," Marui said. "Sensei, Takagi-sensei's eyebrows just got singed."
Yoshida-sensei's own eyebrows shot up, while the rest of the class dissolved into fits of merriment. "Is that so? Well, that's hardly a cause to disrupt the class. Eyebrows will grow back, but time waits for no man." With that, she returned to the front of the classroom. "Quiet, please! Turn to page 38 of the textbook and…"
"Che," muttered Marui. "She's no fun."
MondayAfternoonMarui~
The unlikely couple saw each other next at the afternoon practice. More accurately, they bumped into each other. Literally. Having fought his way through the usual throng of fangirls, Marui walked straight into Niou, who was just about to leave the changing rooms.
"Oh. Hey," said Niou by way of greeting.
Marui glared at him, nursing his bruised head. "'Oh, hey'? What kind of way is that to greet the person you just injured?"
Niou blinked at the redhead, then grinned. "You want something more?"
Something about the way he said that (maybe it was that tiny shift of the angle of his head, maybe his voice had dropped a couple of tones) made Marui think twice about extracting an apology. He glanced at the riveted eyes of the girls behind him, shook his head in exasperation and slammed the door behind himself. "What was that?" he demanded, with the audience taken care of for the moment.
The trickster was still grinning like a Cheshire cat. "We-ell, we're a couple now, right? I thought you were asking for… something… in that sense."
Tell me it's just my imagination – no. Niou was definitely waggling his eyebrows, in a highly disturbing manner. Marui aimed a punch at him, but pulled up short in time to just gently knock Niou's head. "You don't have common sense, do you? It's the first day. We haven't even gone on a date yet. Public displays of affection are still a long way down the schedule!
Niou laughed. "You seriously go by such rules? I had no idea you were so childish!"
"Hey! Just because I said I would be the best boyfriend I could doesn't mean I will take insults lying down from my partner!" protested the redhead.
"And here I thought lying down was the most conventional way. How kinky you are," teased the trickster. "So how do you do it? Doggy-style? On a table? Against a wall? Or even better – against the window or the mirror?"
"What – oh." The blush that colored Marui's cheeks rivaled his hair in terms of rosiness. "The hell, Niou! I don't – I haven't – I never –"
Niou's grin widened. "I see. You're a virgin. I thought it was strange that none of your girlfriends ever got pregnant. I always thought you must have been religious about using protection."
"Oh my god, do you mean you have –" began Marui, but the door opened at that point, and he immediately shut up. He did not want any of their teammates overhearing this particular conversation.
"Oh, you two are early today," remarked the newly-arrived Yukimura. "Where's Genichirou?"
"He's already out there, scolding some first years for taking photos of him on the sly when they're supposed to be getting the courts ready for us," replied Niou.
Marui went to his locker to change. "I don't know why he bothers. Half of them are fans of us anyway. They're only in the tennis club to get photos the girls can't."
"It's very bad for our image if our tennis club members act more like they're a fan club than a tennis club," Yukimura reminded him, also starting to change.
"Well, we're too awesome, so we can't help getting fans," said Marui reasonably.
Niou whacked the redhead. "Can you head possibly get any bigger?"
"But it's true," protested Marui. "Isn't it, buchou?"
Yukimura smiled, but said, "Don't get overconfident."
"Got it, Yukimura-buchou, sir." Marui gave the blunette a mock salute as he walked past on his way to the door. "We'll be off first, then."
"See ya, buchou."Niou followed Marui out into the crush of fans waiting outside.
Once they battled their way through to the courts themselves, they found Sanada in full cry. "Our club is a tennis club, not a fan club! All those who are not here to play tennis, get out, NOW!"
A group of snickering first-years fled the courts, almost crashing into Marui and Niou. "Watch it!" Niou yelled after their retreating backs.
"Hey, fukubuchou," called Marui, tossing a water bottle over.
Sanada caught it easily. "Marui. Niou."
"Don't burst a blood vessel," the redhead told him. "Buchou would be most unhappy if you did. That's to cool your head."
"Yukimura?" Sanada frowned when Marui put on his best innocent face. "Stop fooling around and go warm up," he ordered, examining the bottle with suspicion and a fair bit of what looked like confusion.
Snickering, Marui put down his things and did as he was told. Niou joined him. "What was that about buchou?"
Marui leaned over, pretending to be stretching his side muscles. "See, I've this theory that actually fukubuchou likes Yukimura. You know, like like. So I've been teasing him to see if he'll react. So far the results have been positive."
Niou stared at him. "I thought you weren't gay?"
"If you thought I wasn't gay, why'd you ask me out?" demanded the redhead. "And anyway, I don't see the link. Matchmakers don't have to be gay."
"I thought it was the whole self-identification thing," said his new boyfriend. "What about buchou? Did you try anything on him?"
"As far as I can tell, he's neutral," replied Marui with a sigh. "He just gives me this look that says 'I know you're up to something and I'm not going to take the bait' and spews some neutral non-answer."
"Oi! You two!" A shout made them look up. Sanada was glowering at them. "No talking!"
"Okay!" they called back.
They were silent for perhaps five seconds. Then Marui spoke again. "Hey, I just realized that we've probably talked more in half an hour than we normally do in a month."
"That's kind of pathetic," drawled the trickster.
"Yeah, it is." Marui glanced at Niou. I feel like I don't know him at all. Hell, if someone asked me what his favorite color was, or his favorite ice-cream flavor, I wouldn't have a clue. What kind of teammate am I? Well, in a way it's almost easier to try to be his boyfriend like this. I don't know anything about the girls, usually. The only difference is that they know everything about me, down to my underwear color, and I'm pretty sure Niou doesn't. "Hey, Niou?"
"What?"
"Do you know my underwear color?"
Sea-green eyes flicked over to him. "What the fuck? I know we're a couple now, but why the hell am I supposed to know your underwear color? That's just plain stalker-ness. I might be a trickster, but I'm not a stalker."
Marui shrugged. "Just wanted to check."
"Check whether or not I was a stalker?" suggested Niou.
"I guess." Definitely different from the girls. They don't usually swear, thought Marui. I suppose this is what they call a refreshing change?
"Niou! Marui!" Looking up, they saw Yukimura waving at them. With him were the remaining members of the team.
"Time to start running, it seems," muttered Marui. He disliked running. It reminded him of his stamina issues. Happily he had cake on standby.
"Can't do it 'cause you're too fat? I'll tell buchou for you. Maybe he'll let you off." Niou was smirking at him.
The redhead kicked him hard on the shin. "What kind of boyfriend calls their boyfriend fat?"
"Ow! Well, me?" The trickster offered him a hand up, though he didn't drop the smirk.
"Kindly work on it. I don't think I could handle such treatment for a whole week," Marui deadpanned, yanking the hand with rather more force than was absolutely necessary.
"Aw, how fragile you are. I suppose I should be very sympathetic and hug you right now," remarked Niou, eyes dancing.
Marui groaned, heading towards his bags where his daily supply of cake was kept. "Please, restrain yourself."
~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~
Evening: Niou
After practice, Marui insisted on walking Niou home. The trickster decided not to protest, even though Marui's house was in the direct opposite direction.
On the way, they passed a tiny dango shop. The moment Marui saw it, his eyes lit up. Niou tucked his hands into his pockets. "You want some?"
"You don't mind? Great!" The redhead bounced over to the shop. "Hey, boss!"
Niou watched as his new boyfriend ordered two boxes of dango. He was still getting used to the idea that they were a couple, even if he was the one who had originally suggested it. For three years he had hung out with Yagyuu, and habits die hard.
Still, being around Marui was an interesting experience, and not at all unpleasant. The redhead was feisty, Niou knew that, but he hadn't expected him to be quite so cutely innocent about certain things. No kissing until after the first date? Niou couldn't help grinning at the memory. It sounded like something out of a shoujo manga full of timid, retiring female characters. Not exactly a match for Marui's playboy image. I guess it's only my fault I don't know more about him, he reflected.
"What are you grinning about?" Marui had returned, bearing two boxes of dango. One was already open; he had one stick in his mouth. He held the unopened box out to Niou, glancing suspiciously at the trickster's face. Around the dango, he asked, "Do I have dango sauce on my face or something?"
'Nope, nothing," replied Niou, taking the box. "Though, I kind of expected that we were going to share. Being as we're a couple and all."
Marui removed the stick from his mouth. "You've got a point there." He considered for a moment, then shoved the half-eaten stick of dango at Niou. "Here. Eat."
The trickster looked from the stick to Marui. "Do the 'Ahn~' thing. You know, the one they do at maid cafes when the maid feeds the customer."
"Huh? No way. You can't be serious. I'm not a maid!" exclaimed the redhead. Even in the orange light of the setting sun it was obvious that he was blushing. "You can't make me!"
"Oh yeah?" Niou grinned. "Don't say things you can't be absolutely sure of. Now, I believe that I as your boyfriend has the right to ask that you give me the 'Ahn~'. It's actually quite common nowadays."
"But – wait – " Marui was clearly casting around for a way out. "Since when was I the girl in this relationship?"
"Since it began, princess," teased Niou. "Come on, do the 'Ahn~'. You lost the right to refuse when you agreed to date me."
The redhead was still reluctant. "But you were the one who asked me. Which means you took the girl's position. Which means you are the girl here, not me!"
"Whoever said roles can't be reversed?" countered the trickster. "In any case, anybody with common sense would say you're the girl here. You're the one with pink hair."
"It's red!" Marui denied, pouting. His hair color was a sore point. "And you're the one with long hair."
"Real men have long hair," declared Niou, flipping his rattail in a decent imitation of Atobe's trademark hairflip.
As he'd aimed for, Marui burst out laughing. "You – oh god, you – what the hell was that?"
"Don't drop the dango," warned the trickster, catching the redhead's arm as Marui wavered, overcome with amusement. He took the half-eaten stick of dango from Marui's hand and popped one of the small dumplings into his own mouth. "Hmm. They have a new flavor."
Recovering, Marui remarked, "I don't believe you. And I don't believe myself, either. What the hell was I thinking, to agree to date you?"
"You just came to your senses after six years of not realizing the awesomeness of my company," replied Niou, straight-faced.
The redhead poked him with an empty dango stick. "Can your head possibly get any bigger?"
"Couldn't you tell that I was doing an imitation of you? I said the exact same thing to you just a few hours ago," Niou informed him.
There was park not far from the dango shop. They sat down on a bench there to eat in comparative comfort – for all their tennis skill, it was no mean feat to carry the dango box, eat the dango standing up and not drop their bags at the same time. "So, why did you switch sides?" asked Marui.
Niou considered how to answer. In this situation, it was clearly a bad idea to tell the truth. "I saw my dad in a bra getting it on with a hooker when I was ten. I guess the shock was what did me in."
Marui glanced at him. "Do you actually expect me to believe that? I'm pretty sure those lines appeared in some famous anime or manga."
The trickster shrugged. "Hey, don't look at me. How was I to know they stole my life story?"
"The hell, isn't it the other way round?" exclaimed the redhead incredulously.
"Don't you believe me?" asked Niou, putting on his most innocent face. Which wasn't very innocent, but he did make an attempt
"No," said Marui flatly.
"Isn't trust the foundation of any relationship? What kind of boyfriend doesn't trust his boyfriend?" Niou tried.
"Not going to work," declared Marui. "Nope, not working at all. I still don't believe you."
"It's the boy who cried wolf thing," complained Niou. "Just because I have a reputation of being a trickster doesn't mean I can't tell the truth."
"Yeah, that's the truth and I'm the queen of England," Marui snorted. "But if you don't want to talk about it, that's okay. I don't need to know. It's not like we're going to stick with this arrangement for longer than a week, right?"
"You are terrible at pretending to be a boyfriend," remarked the trickster. "At least put in some effort and act like you believe me. It's only a week. It won't kill you."
"I don't think my acting skills are good enough for that. It's too way out," retorted the redhead. He sighed. "I guess you're right though. I should try harder."
"Right, so you should now be very penitent and do the 'Ahn~' thing for me," suggested Niou.
Marui groaned. "Oh, fine then. I did get myself into this. Don't you go around telling!" he warned, glaring fiercely at his new boyfriend.
I love how I can see his emotions written on his face. It's so different from poker-face Yagyuu. Niou grinned. "You're cute."
"That's no answer," accused Marui, cheeks reddening.
"Okay, okay, I won't tell," said Niou, relenting. "Now will you do it?"
Marui squeezed his eyes shut as though steeling himself, before facing the trickster. Niou caught a glimpse of the determination in his eyes before the redhead smiled sweetly, proffering his last stick of dango. There was only one dango left. "Here, ahn~…"
Niou, smirking, leaned forward and bit the dango, pulling it off the stick and swallowing it neatly. "You really are cute."
"Stop it," complained the redhead, looking away. "It's embarrassing."
"There's nobody here to see," cajoled the trickster.
"Still…" Marui tossed the now-clean dango stick into the box and threw it at the dustbin five feet away. The box flew through the opening without touching the sides. "Hah! Beat that!"
Niou finished his dango and followed suit, tossing the box with seeming carelessness at the dustbin. Like Marui's, the box soared through the opening without touching the sides. "Beaten."
"Draw!" argued Marui.
Looking down (Marui was shorter than him by perhaps an inch, which was enough for Niou to be able to look down at him) at the redhead, whose eyes – burnished tawny gold from their original violet by the setting sun's rays – were glittering in defiance of Niou's declared victory, the trickster was seized by a sudden impulse. Quickly, he reached out, catching Marui's face.
Marui's eyes widened in surprise. "What –" His words were cut off as Niou's lips pressed against his own.
The kiss lasted only a few seconds before Marui recovered enough to shove the trickster away. He stared at Niou, eyes huge in his shocked face, apparently at a loss for words.
"Sorry," said Niou. "I couldn't resist."
Marui took a few deep breaths as he slowly regained the ability to speak. "So… you really are gay."
"You thought I was pulling your leg? After all we did today?" Niou was surprised. He'd thought he'd done a passable imitation of a boyfriend. Maybe he doesn't know that I don't normally talk that much with anyone, or spend that much time in someone else's company…
"Yeah, well, you're the trickster, right?" Marui attempted his usual teasing grin. It came out rather watery. Clearly he was really shocked. "I thought… I said that kisses only come after dating, didn't I?"
"I thought eating dango together could be counted as a date," replied Niou carelessly. Of course, it had been nothing of the sort, but he didn't want to say it had been on impulse. "Besides, you're too cute. You're practically asking to be kissed."
"I do no such thing." Marui's cheeks were a shade of red that put his hair to shame. He stood up. "I'm going home."
"Weren't you going to walk me home?" asked Niou. I'm not begging, no, I'm not, I'm just clarifying –
"Erm… curfew. The dango took longer than I thought." The redhead picked up his bag. "See you tomorrow."
Niou was left sitting alone on the park bench.
I think I just screwed up. Majorly. He leaned back on the bench, staring up at the rapidly darkening sky. Maybe I won't even last seven days. God that is pathetic.
Only when the sun had completely vanished beyond the horizon and the stars become visible in the sky did he stand up and head for home.
~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~HaruMaru~
A/N: I'm back! At last! After… hmm, after 3 months of absence from the PoT fandom and 2 from FFnet in general, I'm back with a new multichapter of a new pairing I've never written before! –dances-
Heh. Despite posting this, I'm not very optimistic. The PoT fandom seems almost dead (Feyren please come back as soon as you can!) Still, I'm gonna try and see how this turns out. HaruMaru is a cute pairing, as I've only just realized, and I'd like to stick with them. This is just up as a test. The next chapter (if there is a next chapter) will only be up in 4 weeks at the least (which is partly why this chappie is so long). If this doesn't get a favorable response by then I'm probably deleting this. DX I'm not threatening, I just feel that writers write for someone to read, and if nobody's reading I'm not going to bother writing because that's just pathetic. No point trying to squeeze blood from stone, as they say…
That aside, I hope that Marui and Niou aren't too OOC. As I said, it's my first time with this pairing and I'm still working things out. It really hurt to break the Platinum Pair up but it was necessary here. I wanted to fit the Seven Days idea – from the manga called what else but Seven Days. Those who don't know it should seriously read it. It's immensely sweet and I love both the main characters there. ^^
For those who didn't realize, this is supposed to be set in high school post-canon. So Marui and Niou should be seventeen-eighteen thereabouts. The rating may or may not go up depending on how the characters write themselves =D
Now that I look at it, I realize Marui's sections are significantly longer than Niou's. Ah well. When and if I write the next chapter I'll try to give Niou more screen time. =X
Please review to let me know what you think and tell me you're here so I know there's an audience! And thanks for reading this immensely long author's note! ^^