Chapter Two

Atobe shook his head a little. An and this Sengoku fellow were just friends, he reassured himself, but he noticed how Sengoku avoided her gaze and stared at his feet.

He took the plunge.

"An—I mean, Miss Tachibana?" he tried to stop his voice from shaking, but it was extremely difficult. "I bought these for you." He handed her the tulips and thought he heard Kabaji snicker. But when he glanced at the boy, his face was perfectly composed.

"Thank you Atobe! Tullips are my favorite flowers," she smiled at him, and he felt is stomach flip a little.

"Mine too," he said, lamely. This wasn't going as planned. His stomach was fluttering and he was sweating a lot. "Erm… I know this really nice place called the Chat d'Noir. Would you… er… Would you like to have dinner there with me?"

Sengoku was surprised, but he saw An wasn't.

She sighed. "Atobe, I've told you this before. I can't date you. I don't like you that way."

"Not a date!" said Atobe feeling himself desperately grabbing at straws. "Just—I just—I just want to give you treat. As, you know, friends or something."

An placed the bundle of red flowers in his outstretched hand and his bony fingers closed around them.

"I-I see…" Atobe felt as though his brain was spinning. He grabbed Kabaji and pulled him towards the exit.

He heard the Sengoku fellow say to An, "Jeez, wasn't that a little harsh?"

"Why? He's an opponent!"

"So is he," said Akira, probably gesturing towards Sengoku.

"But—" An tried.

"Just give him a shot!" Sengoku couldn't believe the words he was saying. This girl should be his not Atobe's.

"No!" An said, a little louder. Sengoku saw Atobe's shoulders hunch a little more.

"I'm going to see if he's okay," now why did he say that? He could've hung out with An more, but he felt sort of sorry for Atobe. An said 'I told you before…' Did that mean the Hyotei captain had tried this more than once? His first reaction was Why would you try to ask out a girl more than once? Then he thought about An. He would ask he a million times just to go out as friends.

So he jogged after Atobe.

The two boys were already halfway down the concrete stairs, Atobe was still pulling Kabaji's sleeve. While Atobe looked ready to drown himself, Kababji seemed mildly bored. May be he always looked like that.

"Are you alright?" Sengoku asked, catching up to them.

Atobe stopped and turned towards him. "Are you An's boyfriend?" he asked, suspiciously. He looked him up and down with bloodshot eyes.

"Oh I wish!" Sengoku realized he'd said that a lot louder than he'd meant to. Atobe seemed to have already figured out an opinion of him and turned, taking Kababji with him.

"Come on Kabaji. Let's go home."

"Usu."

"Hey wait!" said Sengoku, following them.

Atobe stopped, looking irritated now. "What?" he said with more of his usual You're-Below-Me flair.

Sengoku took a deep breath. "I'm sorry about An being so rude. It was really wrong of her."

Atobe looked at him, perhaps reforming his opinion of Sengoku.

"Do you like An too?"

Rather taken aback, Sengoku turned scarlet. "I-I dunno. I only just met a couple weeks ago really…" He saw Atobe smirk.

"Come!" he said loudly, snapping his fingers. Sengoku followed, but only because he had said he would see if Atobe was okay.

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Some things make you feel really tiny in comparison.

That's what the Atobe house did for Sengoku.

Atobe allowed Sengoku to pop into his father's restaurant to tell him where they were going. His father seemed shocked, but said it was fine, but could he meet who was driving them there? Atobe sighed and whipped out a Razor cell phone and pressed one of the buttons.

"Fairweather?... Yes… yes… SHUT UP!... Yes… Look, I need you to talk to someone… Uh-huh?... Here," he handed the phone to Sengoku's father.

"Hello?" he spoke to the man for a while. Finally he said, "How about you pick them up here… No… No I don't want my son walking around in the dark and I'm surprised you let your million dollar-charge walk around the streets of Tokyo by himself!… Oh…" he spotted Kabaji, who had coughed when he said 'by himself'. Mr. Sengoku mouthed 'Sorry!'

He gave Fairweather the address, and they waited.

After about five minutes, the bell of the restaurant tinkled and a large, muscled man with dark skin and a shaved head came in. He bowed to Sengoku's father, who jerked his head in return, and then to the three boys. Sengoku decided it felt really cool to have adults bow to you instead of you bowing to them. He even called him 'Sengoku-sama' which was even more awesome.

The boys climbed into the limo and they headed off. They drove down the streets of Tokyo and right past Redwood, Sengoku's neighborhood. He was mildly confused when they passed through the gates to Oakwood and past several huge houses. He knew they were big, but not quite this big! It was like Redwood was filled with little cupcakes, and Oakwood was filled with enormous wedding cakes. Very Frank Lloyd Wright inspired wedding cakes. The floors stuck out at different levels like a Frank Lloyd Wright house, but these were at least several floors larger than any house of Frank Lloyd Wright. Of course, a few houses had an older touch, but nothing earlier than a 1920s design.

Thus, he was surprised when they passed through the gates to get to the Atobe house and the house was smooth brick with no layers sticking out. It was more like a manor really. Or maybe a chateau. It was long and curved—on the sides, the house came forward. Sengoku thought from above the house would look like a large U.

The gravel crunched underneath the tires and Fairweather pulled up to the front door.

Sengoku stepped out of the limo, amazed by the vastness of the manor. The hedges that separated lawn from the people next door gave the feeling that they had stepped from Tokyo-gated community to the hills of France or England. It was like some set for Pride And Prejudice. Maybe that bit with that party where Lizzie dances with Darcy.

Atobe pushed open the front door, slipped of his shoes and handed them to the butler. The butler handed him a pair of soft white slippers in return.

"Get some for the these two as well," said Atobe as Sengoku struggled out of his mismatched, too-small sneakers. Well, one was too small, the other was too big, but they were near to the same colors so it wasn't that embarrassing.

The main hall was decorated in reddish-brown wood. The plush carpet was a lush scarlet and the oak staircase could house Bette Davis and it wouldn't have seemed unusual.

They walked up stairs and down hallways, all seemed to be decorated in the reddish-brown colors, with the (not so) occasional painting. Finally, after climbing the fifth set of stairs, Atobe turned the brass handles on one of the doors.

Inside was a huge bedroom. The walls were bright white but everything else was in various shades of violet, including the computer, which was sitting on a desk near the window. Sengoku could see through an open door, a large en suite bathroom, decorated in pale shades of purple.

For once, Sengoku wished his room wasn't beige, but that it was something exciting, like violet.

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Kabaji leaned against the burgundy walls of the hallway. He'd been sent out of Atobe's room about half an hour ago. At least, he thought it was half an hour. His watch had stopped at about four o'clock.

He felt guilty for the things he had thought earlier. Atobe was his only friend and thinking things like that was just… sort of like… betrayal.

He had probably thought those things because he had only slept three hours last night. It was taking its toll now. He rubbed his fingers through his thick hair. The damage had been done by those thoughts; he was now feeling guilty enough to apologize for something Atobe didn't even know he'd done.

He glanced at his watch again before he remembered it wasn't working. He sank onto the plush rug. Atobe would probably take a while.

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Atobe looked through the keyhole.

"Okay, he's relaxed. We can start talking," he said, and sat down across from Sengoku.

"Why'd we wait thirty minutes so that he'd relax?" asked Sengoku, twirling a ginger lock of hair around his finger.

"So he wouldn't listen in," said Atobe, brushing some of his hair off his forehead. "Anyway, you're Sengoku of Yamabuki right?"

"Yes."

"Hm… And you fancy An?"

"I guess…"

"Even though you only met her recently?"

"Yes…?"

A smile spread over Atobe's face.

"I have an idea, opponent."

"Opponent?" Sengoku felt very confused. Sure, Atobe was his opponent in tennis, but only if they played against each other. He didn't really know Atobe that well outside of a court.

"Yes, opponent," Atobe continued, smirking. He seemed to recover quickly from being dumped. "We shall battle for An's love. We'll compete in several activities, none of them being tennis. Let's see who take the upper hand in dancing and boxing!"

Sengoku felt himself sizzle. He could hear the back of his mind say Don't go after the bait! Don't go after the bait! You know you're best in boxing! Don't go after the bait! But he went after it anyway.

"You? Box? Pah! Let's see who beats who in cooking and running!"

"I'll beat your ass off in riding!"

"I kick your butt in…" Sengoku paused, thinking things over for a second. "Shouldn't we just keep these down to what we could do to help girls, or protect them?"

Atobe considered this. "You're right." He stood up and pulled out a leather bound notebook from one of the deep purple bookshelves. He began scribbling a list in loopy cursive. Sengoku moved over next to him and read the writing. After Atobe wrote three things down he passed the list to Sengoku and he printed three things in rounded letters.

Atobe read it over. "Boxing, dancing, stock (how much money you can make in a day without an advisor), cooking, cleaning and budget creating." He turned to Sengoku. "Budget creating? What kind of skill is that?"

"I forgot the word for it," said Sengoku. "You plan how much money you should spend on certain things."

"Oh," Atobe looked at the two words again. "Who needs a skill like that?"

Sengoku rolled his eyes. "Most 'commoners' do. We'd work with the average commoner monthly salary."

Atobe nodded, skill looking a little confused. He soon regained his usual haughty composure. "Well, opponent, how about you sleep over here for a week for our activities." He pointed to a large couch.

Sengoku thought about it. "I sleep at your house for the first three, then you sleep over at mine for the last three. Three days at each house."

Atobe nodded. "We start in a week."

"Winner gets to ask out An without the other interfering," said Sengoku.

"What if there's a tie?" asked Atobe. Neither had thought of this, so it took Sengoku a while to answer.

"We have Kabaji think of another challenge that we can do at his house," he said finally.

They shook hands. Little did they know that this agreement would change their lives forever.