Disclaimer: I do not own Prince Of Tennis unfortunately. Sigh, all those lost yaoi moments...

Okay, so here's the second chapter of 'A Little Love'. Enjoy, puri~!


Chapter Two

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"

The rest of the regulars came rushing into the bedroom and stopped dead at what they saw. Marui and Niou looked up at the sudden intrusion and Marui's eyes narrowed as they homed in one Yanagi.

"Yanagi! What have you done to me? I'm gonna kill-whoa!" Marui's rant was cut short as he took a step forward and tripped over the hem of his pyjama shirt. Luckily Niou caught him before he could fall all the way to the floor and bang his head. Niou stood up, keeping his hold on the mini tensai lest he cause any more potential harm to himself. The regulars stared at the duo, all of them too in shock to really do anything else. The first one to come out of their stupor was Akaya as his eyes turned sparkly.

"Aww, Kawaii-senpai!" He squealed as he bounded over to Niou and Marui. "Marui-senpai, you are so cuuuute! Can I hold you? Please? Can I? Can I, can I, can I?"

"I am not cute, I am handsome, and I am not your plaything!" Marui glared at his kouhai. Unfortunately for him, it came out more as a pout which caused Akaya to squeal even more. Fortunately for him, the other regulars had come to and had the sense to pull the second year away.

"Calm down, Akaya. I don't think Marui appreciates the loud noise and I'm pretty sure that Niou doesn't like it either." Yukimura said. Akaya immediately shut up and paled as he looked at Niou. He didn't want to annoy the Trickster; he was still getting over last time. Gods, the humiliation…

Marui looked up and saw that Niou did indeed look sour at the noise. Whilst he was glad that the look had shut Akaya, he didn't particularly want to be near Niou when he was that annoyed. Fortunately Yagyuu noticed and took the mini tensai off of Niou.

"I think you're scaring Marui-kun, Niou-kun." He explained as he carefully stopped the pyjama shirt from slipping off any further. "How are you feeling, Marui-kun? Besides the obvious, of course." He quickly added at Marui's sceptical look.

"Well, besides the obvious, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" Marui asked, wide eyes blinking innocently and causing everybody (i.e. me) to momentarily melt at the cuteness.

"You had a fever earlier." Yukimura explained as he ruffled the boy's fair, ignoring the scowl that it earned him. "It seems to be gone now, though." Yanagi stepped forward.

"I think that that was probably because of the changes his body were going through as he made the transition from a fifteen-year-old to a…how old are you, Marui?" Yanagi asked. Marui but his lip as he thought.

"Um, I think I might be around five-years-old maybe. I'm not really sure." Marui admitted. Yanagi nodded.

"As he made the transition from a fifteen-year-old to a maybe five-year-old." He finished. Everybody nodded at the explanation before Sanada spoke up.

"What are we going to do? It's all very well figuring this stuff out but what are we going to do? Marui is five, his parents are out of town and it's not like we could really tell them if they were here." Sanada pointed out. Everybody was stumped by that one but Yukimura spoke up smiling.

"We'll look after Marui. We've got the week off next week so we'll just tell our parents that Marui is ill and that since his parents are away we'll stay and look after him as an extended sleepover of sorts." He decided. "I suggest that everybody calls their parents now to avoid as little worry as possible on our parents part." Everybody nodded as they reached for their mobile phones when Marui spoke up.

"Wait, wait, wait! Don't I get any say in this! Besides, it's all very well deciding who's going to look after me but what about changing me back? I don't want to grow up all over again!" Marui said with a sulky scowl.

"Aww, is Marui-senpai in a bad mood?" Akaya cooed as he patted Marui on the head. Marui swatted the offending hand away.

"Akaya, I am currently five-years-old. I think I'm allowed to be moody." Marui said. Niou smirked.

"Che, always knew you were a girl, Marui. Thank you for finally admitting it, puri." Marui opened and closed his mouth a few times before firmly shutting it and looking away with tears in his eyes. Akaya turned on Niou.

"Now look what you've done, Niou-senpai, you've made him cry." Akaya berated the Trickster as Marui desperately tried to wipe the tears away with his sleeves. Niou had the decency to a look a tiny bit guilty, if a bit offended.

"Do not worry, it is probably only the effect of the juice. The juice that Marui was given has probably not only changed his physical appearance but his mind as well. It seems that whilst Marui has retained his memories of being a teenager, allowing him to act more or less as he normally would, his mentality is now similar to that of when he was five meaning that things that wouldn't upset him normally now do upset him. Marui is merely reacting as any child would." Yanagi explained. "Also, do not worry, Marui. I will relay all my findings back to Sadaharu and we will work on a cure for your predicament." Marui nodded as he continued rubbing at his eyes, more tears leaking out as he got more and more frustrated at himself. Niou sighed and stepped forward.

"Don't rub your eyes so hard, you'll hurt them." Niou said as he used his sleeve to gently brush the tears away. Marui nodded, sniffling slightly as he buried his face in Yagyuu's shoulder. As this small exchange was going on, the rest of the regulars began phoning their parents and Yanagi phoned Inui. Within in the hour all of the regulars' parents had dropped by with clothes for the week, half of the mothers bringing various comfort foods 'to make Marui feel better'. The Yukimura's were the last parents to come, with a plastic bag full of clothes to go with Yukimura's suitcase. Yukimura dumped his suitcase in the living room, where they had all decided to sleep since the other rooms were too small, before making his way up to Marui's bedroom with the plastic bag.

The rest of the regulars were in the bedroom scoffing cookies made by Akaya's mother. Marui was currently sitting on Sanada's lap who was sitting on the bed. This arrangement had been made so that Marui didn't constantly fall over and so that Sanada couldn't slap them. Yukimura smiled as he grabbed a cookie and sat on the bed next to Sanada.

"What's in the bag, 'Mura-buchou?" Akaya asked as he licked crumbs off his thumb.

"Clothes that my little sister grew out of recently. She used to be the same size that Marui is now until she had a growth spurt. My mum was going to throw them away but I told her that Marui had a cousin the same age as my little sister and had asked if she could have them instead." Yukimura explained. "This way Marui will have clothes until Renji can change him back."

"You're not gonna make me wear a skirt, are you?" Marui asked uncertainly, quite prepared to run away if need be.

"Don't worry, Emiko (1) had several pairs of trousers. I'll only make you wear a skirt if you annoy me." Marui eep'ed and tried to scramble away. Yukimura laughed quietly. "Just joking. Now, why don't we get you changed into some clothes that fit, hmm?"

"Oooh, 'Mura-buchou, can I help choose?" Akaya asked excitedly. Yukimura nodded and Marui gulped as they started looking at the clothes, thankfully avoiding the skirts and not thankfully looking at all the pink tops. Fortunately, Niou came to his rescue.

"Instead of dressing him, why don't you just put his pyjamas on instead? If he really does act like a child then he'll get tired soon since it's gone six and if he doesn't get tired than at least we don't have to worry about changing him later and we'll have an extra set of clothes." Niou said as he reached over and plucked a pair of light blue pyjamas from the pile. Akaya pouted a little and nodded reluctantly as Yukimura's smile drooped fractionally as he also saw the reasoning behind the Trickster's words. Marui sent Niou a grateful look.

"Whilst Marui changes, why don't we set up the living room?" Jackal suggested. "I doubt we'll want to do it later and I don't think Marui would appreciate us watching him get changed."

"Aww, but I wanted to help Marui-senpai get changed." Akaya pouted. "Also, can I stop calling him 'senpai' since technically I'm older than him?"

"I can get changed myself and no, you cannot stop calling senpai. I might be trapped in a five-year-olds body but I'm still older than you." Marui huffed, crossing his arms.

"Actually, I think it would be better if somebody stayed in the room with Marui-kun." Yagyuu spoke up suddenly. Marui was about to protest but the Gentleman quickly cut in. "I know that you can dress yourself but you said it yourself, Marui-kun; you are currently trapped in a five-year-olds body and your body might not be as co-ordinated as it used to be as a result. I'm just suggesting that somebody should stay with you in case you fall over and hurt yourself or if you need any assistance with anything." Marui mulled over the words briefly before nodding. He didn't like the idea of somebody watching him but he liked the idea of getting hurt even less.

"Seiichi, Yagyuu and Niou all have younger siblings, so one of them should stay with Marui. Out of the three of them, Niou is the only one with a younger brother so he would probably be the best candidate." Yanagi said. Niou sighed but agreed and took Marui off Sanada.

"We'll go re-arrange the living then. The spare futons and blankets are still in the cupboard at the end of the hall, right?" Jackal asked. The redhead nodded. "Do you want us to bring up your nightwear, Niou?"

"Yeah, might as well. Less hassle later on." Niou said as the rest of the team made their way out of the room. He shut the door behind them before setting Marui down on the floor and handing him the pyjamas. Marui took them and looked between them and Niou hesitantly. Niou raised a bleached eyebrow. "Well?"

"Could you please turn round? This is kind of embarrassing…" Marui said quietly. Niou's mouth formed a small 'o' and he complied, turning round and facing the door. He heard some rustling as Marui pulled the clothes on and a bit of fumbling. The fumbling carried on for a couple of minutes, Marui making little noises of frustration. The small boy finally gave up and bit down on his pride. "Um, Niou? Could you please help me with the buttons? They're kinda fiddly and opposite (2) to what I'm used to…" Niou turned round and saw Marui blushing embarrassedly.

"Okay." He said as he knelt down and deftly did up all the buttons before ruffling the other boy's hair gently. "You don't have to be embarrassed, ya know. This isn't your fault and we're not gonna make fun of you. Well, maybe when you're back to normal we will but not until then."

"Thank you but it's still kinda embarrassing. I used to being able to do all this stuff by myself and now suddenly I need help with something as simple as buttoning up a shirt." Marui said, starting to sniffle a little. A look of annoyance flashed across his small face. "Ugh, stupid feelings! I hate being a kid!" Niou pulled him into hug and rubbed his back, remembering how he used calm his brother down when they were younger.

"Shhh. There there." Niou said soothingly. Marui buried his face in the other's shoulder, sniffling quietly. They stayed there for a few minutes before knocking on the door brought them out of their small world. Niou stood up, picking Marui up with him, the redhead rubbing his nose with a last couple of sniffs. "Come in!" Niou called out as he searched his pockets for a clean tissue. The door opened to reveal Akaya carrying a bundle of clothes.

"I've got your pyjamas, Niou-senpai." Akaya said as he handed the Trickster the bundle and took Marui off him. "We're having the chicken noodle soup that Yagyuu-senpai's mother brought for dinner. Also, when you've finished changing, could you get the duvet and pillows from Marui-senpai's bed and bring them downstairs?"

"Okay brat. Get out so I can get changed and I'll meet you guys downstairs." Niou shoved them out of the bedroom and shut the door. Akaya adjusted his grip on his small senpai and made his way towards the stairs.

"I can walk." Marui said though he made no move to get down. The tensai had just about given up fighting against his much bigger teammates.

"I know you can. It's just that you seem upset and when I'm upset I feel tired and weak and don't like walking." Akaya explained as he slowly walked down the stairs and into the living room. The living room had been re-arranged so that the two sofas were pushed against the wall facing the TV and the coffee table had been pushed to the left wall underneath the window. The sofas had been made into makeshift beds, the three spare futons had been laid on the floor along with two mounds of blankets and pillows. There was a space near the door where Marui assumed that his duvet and pillows would go.

The futons had already been claimed by Yukimura, Sanada and Yanagi. Yagyuu had taken one of the makeshift sofa beds and Akaya set Marui down on the other sofa bed, leaving himself and Jackal with the blanket and pillow mounds. Marui was passed a bowl of chicken noodle soup which he began to slurp up hungrily. Niou came in a couple of minutes later, duvet and pillows trailing behind him. He quickly dragged them into something resembling a bed before flopping down on top of the duvet and reaching for the last bowl of soup. Somebody turned the TV on and a rerun of Gremlins was on. Nobody could be bothered to find the remote so they all watched it.

Marui went into the kitchen to put his bowl in the sink (with much difficulty). He re-entered the living room just in time to see a gremlin jumping out of a Christmas tree. Marui would be lying if he said he wasn't scared by that. He scrambled back up on to his sofa and wrapped the blanket around him, shivering slightly as he watched the film. He felt his eyes drooping and he couldn't be more grateful as he saw the gremlins reproducing. He closed his eyes and sank into a land of less-scary-than-gremlins darkness…


A/N: (1) I do not know Yukimura's sister's name so I just made one up. This will be the case with any family members (usually siblings) introduced throughout the story. If you know her real name thenjust tell me and I'll change it as soon as humanly possible. Promise.
(2) Just a pointless piece of trivia that most people already know but for those of you who have forgotten, buttons on girls shirts are done up the opposite way to boys.

Okay, that's the second chapter down. I hope you're all enjoying the story so far. Thanks to all who have reviewed, favourited and/or alerted this story already! I love you guys! I'll probably be updating this story every couple of days so Chapter Three will be up on Thursday! Marui's first full day as a chibi! Kyaa! Until then! Bye!