A/N: Short chapter - but I regret nothing! XD
Warnings: AU, Moresomes, shameless promiscuity, dark themes, OOCness (will be eventually explained)
Disclaimer: I do not own Prince of Tennis.
Pairings: Same, with the addition Sweet, implications of SasakiTerry
Chapter 3
Yukimura was on the warpath.
Niou hadn't been able to glean much as to why. Sanada was as tight-lipped as ever and all of the day-time employees were as confused as the night-time ones. Jackal had not been helpful; according to the Brazilian man, their former underclassman visited with a bunch of his college buddies for lunch and one of them had upset the blue-haired owner of the bar.
Yukimura on the warpath was hilarious.
"He's locked himself in his office," Niou said cheerfully, pouring his companion a small cup of sake. Yagyuu looked as vaguely interested as he always did, although he was deliberately ignoring Sanada's very existence in the corner of the bar. Niou hadn't asked, chalking it up to his boyfriend's usual indifference. "I think I heard him trying to convince Atobe to look for Urayama's little friend. Yukimura wants blood."
Yagyuu gave this consideration, "...His advances were likely rejected. I'm surprised Urayama's friend could get away with denying Yukimura in his own territory."
"Shit, really?" Niou cackled. Like most - if not all - of the employees of Yukimura's bar, Niou knew exactly what his boss and his lovers got up to. He'd had to personally throw out some of their clingier conquests, much to his chagrin. Yagyuu hadn't looked very sympathetic to Niou's plight when the silver-haired man complained to him about it, but Yagyuu had stopped being completely indifferent to the matter after one of the conquests had killed himself in the bar while the bespectacled office worker had been present.
"Why didn't he just pressure Urayama for the information?" Yagyuu inquired.
"Jackal said the kids beat a hasty exit," a new voice interrupted.
Marui threw himself into the sofa across from them, reclining luxuriously as he gave his two gossiping friends a cocky smile. Following the redhead was the yawning, slouched form of Akutagawa Jiroh. The blonde gave his lover a plaintive look before, with a small shrug, climbed atop the redhead and stretched out.
"They escaped?" Niou jeered. "I'm surprised Sanada let them!"
Yagyuu snorted, "They couldn't exactly hold them hostage."
Marui didn't add anything else, running a hand through his boyfriend's hair and keeping a careful eye on the frowning figure of Sanada across the room. He glanced at his two friends with a curious look in his eyes.
"Jiroh heard something interesting," Marui started. The blonde laying across his chest was already fast asleep, despite the chatter that filled the bar. "Atobe paid a personal visit to Matsura Offices? With Fuji?"
Yagyuu barely restrained a scowl. Niou did a full-body pause, eyes swiveling to lock onto his lover's form with a raised eyebrow.
"Kachou was pleased," Yagyuu muttered.
"I've seen Aoki, and he's no looker," Marui replied. "Do you know who their latest toy is?"
Yagyuu drained his sake cup, allowing Niou to pour him another and draining it just as quickly. "Unfortunately. I can only hope they tire of him quickly - he's not handling their attentions well."
"It's Tezuka, isn't it?" Niou murmured.
Yagyuu gave a sharp nod.
Marui hummed, not recognizing the name. "He's not keen for their affection? That's a rare breed," the redhead mused.
"Tezuka-san has the unfortunate disposition of being a decent person," Niou sniggered.
Yukimura came stalking out of his office at that point. His employees noticeably avoided going near him, although the blue-haired man did nod politely in greeting to some of his regular customers. His intention was clear as he stopped in front of Sanada to trade a few words with his taller lover. Slowly, a devious was growing on Yukimura's lips as he continued speaking, Sanada nodding in understanding every now and then.
"Guess he found who he was looking for," Niou observed.
Yagyuu downed another glass.
"Tadaima," Tezuka called out.
It was almost 10 p.m. now - early, in comparison to most of his nights. He'd forsaken his usual tradition of waiting for Aoki to finish his work first, not having enough energy or even care to wait for his lazy boss. Inui had nearly had a heart attack when Tezuka had excused himself, and the brunette had to avoid Oishi's alarmed and worried look as he left. As it was, he just felt so disgusting right now that staying any longer at work would have driven him mad.
"Welcome back," Ryoma replied, stepping into the entryway. He was wearing nothing but his pajama bottoms, hair slightly damp from his bath but still looking very much alert. Golden eyes looked Tezuka over critically for a moment before the owner reached his decision.
"Go take a shower, Kunimitsu," Ryoma said, giving his lover a chaste peck on the cheek. "I'll make you something to eat. Is stir-fry okay?"
"Perfect," Tezuka murmured, pulling the younger man in for a slow kiss before he could head to the kitchen. Ryoma answered willingly, smiling into his lover's lips as Tezuka slipped a hand around his waist to draw them closer. After several moments, they drew apart - Tezuka's eyes never losing contact with Ryoma's as he continued to hold the younger man.
"Shower," Tezuka mumbled after a lengthy pause.
Ryoma rose a teasing eyebrow. "Was that a reminder or an invitation?"
Tezuka's eyes darkened considerably in want, before something seemed to occur to the man. Almost immediately, he drew back; dropping his possessive hold of Ryoma and taking a few steps away. Ryoma didn't say anything but his smile vanished as he stared up at Tezuka questioningly.
"I'm sorry," Tezuka murmured. "I'm just a bit tired."
Ryoma seemed to take this into consideration, before he shrugged with a small smirk. "I'll get started on that stir-fry. The supermarket had a sale today, so I got a good deal," the younger man stated, moving back towards the kitchen. Tezuka relaxed, the ice that had been running through his veins warming considerably as he gazed at his lover.
This was the man he loved. Ryoma could be cocky and troublesome, but he was also considerate of Tezuka's hectic schedule, helpful when it mattered, and kind to Tezuka. He was gentle and loving in bed, eager to please and so devoted that Tezuka had seen him break hearts before they even had a chance to confess.
Tezuka felt even more unworthy of him.
After his shower, Tezuka pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt. He wanted to cover himself up so that Ryoma wouldn't have to see the disgusting mess that Tezuka imagined himself to be. They hadn't left any 'love marks', but he was heavily enough bruised from their possessive holds that Tezuka still looked like a mess. He didn't know what Ryoma had thought when he saw the bruises littering Tezuka's body, he could only hope the younger man would never question it. Tezuka may just break if he did.
Returning to the kitchen, he found Ryoma scraping out his stir-fry concoction onto a plate. Ryoma may have been a prodigious tennis player, a doting cat owner, a diligent student - but he he was simply abysmal at cooking.
Tezuka stared at the slightly-charred cabbage stir-fry with a blank face. "Was the sale on cabbage?"
Ryoma didn't meet his eyes, "Yeah."
"And only cabbage?"
"...Yeah."
The stir-fried cabbage sizzled unpleasantly on his plate. It was dark and chunky, smelling strongly of sesame oil and ginger. Sometimes he wondered if Ryoma just picked spices and sauces at random, pouring it on to the food and hoping for the best. For some reason, the image of Ryoma being a Mad Scientist as he experimented mercilessly on their food floated up in Tezuka's mind.
Tezuka chuckled, and with a content smile, took a bite of the stir fry.
Ryoma's answering warm look made his subsequent offering to the porcelain gods completely worth it.
"So Billy looks like he's ready to blow chunks during the entire trip back," Kevin recounted irritably as Ryoma packed up his notebook. Their shared course on International Law had just ended, and after once ignoring Hanamura-sensei's creepy advances, they were free to go. "Which is fine, since he's sitting next to Michael, but then Baker just won't stop fuckin' lecturing us about embarrassing him because Terry wandered off while we were at the museum-"
Ryoma snorted, "What, he saw something shiny?"
"If by 'shiny' you mean 'a really hot guy that looked suspiciously like Professor Sakaki', then yes," Kevin said dryly.
"How illicit," Ryoma muttered.
Stepping out of the classroom and with every intention of getting something to eat before Kevin mauled him for food, Ryoma was unpleasantly accosted when a hand grabbed his arm and forced him to stop. Ryoma blinked up at the unwelcome person holding his limb hostage, staring up into a familiar smiling face.
"What the hell?" Kevin snapped, irritated that some stranger had just gotten all handy with his friend.
Yukimura gave the blond a casual glance before turning his attention back to his prey. "Ah, Ryoma-kun - we've been waiting for you."
Ryoma stared at him just as another figure stepped up beside the restaurant owner. A slender brunette with closed eyes and a mischievous smile on his face. He didn't look dangerous, at first glance, but Ryoma had become better at reading people back in high school - and could tell that the stranger was rather intimidating.
"I'm Fuji Syuusuke," the brunette said cheerfully. "Nice to meet you, Ryoma-kun. Seiichi has been telling me all about you."
Ryoma stared from one face to another as he came to a decision. Finally, he looked back up at Yukimura with bored eyes, "And who are you?"
Yukimura gaped at him.
Kevin looked away, body shaking from forcibly holding back his laughter. He severely doubted that Ryoma didn't actually know the blue-haired man - the fact that he hadn't irritably shook off the man's hold was testament to the fact - but obviously he didn't covet the attention.
"Try not to take it too hard," Kevin said in mock-comfort, his Japanese coming out stilted but understandable. "Ryoma just doesn't like to remember boring people."
Yukimura's eyes narrowed.
"Not 'boring', Kevin," Ryoma corrected with an air of long-suffering. "I have trouble remembering people. You're unintentionally insulting people again."
Kevin blinked wide, innocent eyes at them. Who, me? The foreigner with terrible Japanese? Surely it was just a mistranslation! No harm was meant!
"We would really like to talk to Ryoma alone," Fuji said in clear English.
Kevin batted his eyes at him. "Everyone has wants, babe," he cooed. Fuji noticeably took a step back, blue eyes showing for a moment in alarm at the blond's husky tone.
Ryoma rolled his eyes. "Get lost, Kevin. Go find Billy and tell him all about the creepy men stalking me or something."
Kevin cackled as he pivoted and began to walk away, throwing up one hand in a farewell. "Remember to finish that essay for Professor Yamato after you're done having sticky homo sex~!"
Ryoma just huffed quietly as every eye in the hall turned to peer at their little group curiously. Yukimura and Fuji seemed to have been taken aback by the blond's lack of care for their surroundings and had froze, much to the younger boy's amusement.
"Hey, aren't we supposed to be talking?" Ryoma reminded them irritably. He couldn't believe that psycho creep from the bar had actually stalked him to school! And he knew none of his friends had told him any information, either, because they wouldn't dare risk Ryoma's wrath.
Yukimura nodded curtly, frowning slightly as he tugged the younger man along. Ryoma tolerated this for about two steps before shaking Yukimura's hand off with a glare. Fuji walked alongside him, looking ready to latch onto his arm should he try to run. Yukimura fell back another step to be on Ryoma's other side, trapping the younger man between them.
"Surprised to see me?" Yukimura asked after they had stepped through the front doors.
Ryoma didn't even look at him, "Your dick still work?"
Yukimura twitched in annoyance.
"If you guys don't mind, I'd like to have this conversation where plenty of people can see us," Ryoma said, stopping abruptly in the university's courtyard. Other students milled around, hardly giving them a glance, but at least he had the added security of not being viciously murdered right then and there.
The two men shared a look before, with identical smiles, turned back to him. Ryoma finally noticed the bag Fuji had slung over a shoulder as the brunette opened it up, pulling out two things that made the younger boy stare blankly.
"It's Knipschildt chocolate," Yukimura explained in the wake of Ryoma's baffled silence. "It's about 100,000 yen a pound. They're delicious truffles," the bar owner chirped.
"These are casablanca lillies," Fuji added, holding out a bouquet of beautiful, freshly-cut white flowers. "They've also been infused with about 40 gemstones and 10 diamonds, so it's about 80,000 yen."
Ryoma stared at them, taken utterly off-guard.
"Flowers and chocolates," Yukimura recited with a smirk, as the two men practically shoved the gifts into the younger male's hands. "Next is the giant teddy bear, yes?"
Ryoma stared at his gifts. Then, he took a very slow, deliberate step away from the two amused men. "You're insane," he told them calmly. He took another few steps away, keeping careful eyes on them before he pivoted and dashed off.
Fuji and Yukimura watched him take off with equally-damning smiles.
"You're right; he is cute," Fuji agreed.
Yukimura nodded, pleased with his lover's assessment. "He'll be worth the chase. Of course, I'll have to punish him for that stunt he pulled last time we met, but I'm sure that can wait until after we've captured him."
Fuji turned away, laughing lightly. "So we lure him in with honey?"
"Well, we did use all the vinegar on Tezuka-san, didn't we?" Yukimura pointed out.
"True, true."
As his hand at stir-fried cabbage seemed to be no good, Ryoma relegated himself to make instant-mix curry for dinner. Tossing the pre-cut veggies into the microwave to thaw, he picked up his cellphone and considered his options.
Tezuka had been acting strange for the past week. First off, they hadn't had sex at all - and while Tezuka may come home exhausted seemingly every day, he was still young and virile enough to have quite the sex drive. Ryoma wasn't new to the older man's exhaustion barring him from getting intimate, but a whole week of no sex was new to their relationship. Ryoma wasn't sure how to handle this unprecedented situation, not wanting to ask too much of Tezuka if this was just a result of the man being too tired from work.
Secondly, Tezuka had clammed up considerably. While the older man was by no means the chatty type (unless drunk, Ryoma had learned one night after he'd graduated from high school), Tezuka was hardly as withdrawn as he was acting now. There were more ways to communicate than just speaking, after all, but Tezuka spent more time thinking to himself when they were together and taking sinfully long showers. Just a few days ago Ryoma had found Tezuka staring at his own reflection in the mirror with absolutely no expression on his face.
Third, Tezuka had been working overtime nearly every night now. Sure, he usually worked overtime at least four days a week - but every day? He'd even went into work on Sunday after receiving a phone call from one of his coworkers! If this continued any longer, Tezuka would probably drop dead from overwork!
However, Ryoma wasn't an idiot. This entire episode of Tezuka's had started last Friday - so that's the day Ryoma was going to lay blame on. He just needed to find out why.
There were a variety of methods he could use to investigate. The easiest would be to ask Oishi, but Ryoma knew the man had been a little out of it for the past week because of his fight with Kikumaru. (When the two fought, Tezuka dealt with Oishi - and Ryoma got Kikumaru, because for some unfathomable reason, the redhead was fond of the snarky male.) This immediately crossed off the pair from his mental list. His alternative lay with two people he usually tried to avoid asking favors of - Inui and Dan. The former because the man made him promise to try the juices that even hapless bystanders rejected immediately, and the latter because post-high school, Dan had turned into one blackmailing little sonuvabitch that constantly flexed an information network worthy of arrest.
Deciding he'd rather be knocked unconscious by Inui's poisonous brews than enter indentured servitude with his peer, Ryoma called Inui.
"Ryoma-kun?"
"Yo, Inui-senpai," Ryoma greeted casually. "I have a question."
"Every question is worth one juice," Inui stated automatically.
Asshole! Ryoma glared into empty space. "Fine, whatever. What happened last Friday?"
There was a general pause as Inui recounted said day. "I'm assuming you mean in regards to possible answers for Tezuka's behavior this past week." Inui would notice, of course. "Everything at work occurred at the same pace, so I'm 96 percent certain the cause does not lie there. However, after work we went to get a few drinks at a bar club Yagyuu recommended. It had good reviews - Black Sea is the bar's name."
Now why did that sound familiar?
"Tezuka had already drunk more than half a bottle of vodka before I realized he had become inebriated. By that time, both the bar owner and his former junior high school classmate, Fuji, were sitting with him. He refused my offer to escort him home or even to stay over at my place. At that point, Oishi had already gone home to apologize to Kikumaru and I had to get home to Kaoru," Inui explained monotonously. "From what Renji has told me, he apparently left just after midnight, leaving Tezuka with Yagyuu, Fuji, and Yukimura."
Ryoma's eyes widened upon the last name. "Yukimura? The former captain of Rikkaidai?"
"Yes," Inui said, startled that the younger boy had even remembered. "He didn't appear to recognize either myself or Tezuka, however, even after we had been introduced." That Yukimura did not recognize Tezuka, Inui could understand; after all, during the Kantou tournament, Tezuka had been trying to recover from the injury done to his arm. During the Nationals where Seigaku had claimed first place, Yukimura had not been present - while the man's surgery to save him from some fatal illness had succeeded, he had still been unable to play tennis. The only chance they had of seeing each other was in passing, but never once had they had a conversation. Inui should have at least been recognizable to the former captain, but then again - it had been a long time. Sometimes high school felt like a world away.
The pieces were trying to click together for Ryoma - he just wasn't letting them. The very idea that Tezuka would cheat on him was ludicrous - Tezuka wouldn't be able to even stomach the idea.
But Ryoma had first-hand experience at how pushy Yukimura could be.
"So you left him there?" Ryoma asked, the question coming out much more sharply than he intended. Inui seemed to catch this, as there was a generous pause as the older man tried to figure out why this information would rile his former underclassman.
"Yes," Inui said. "Tezuka claimed he wanted to...reminisce with Fuji, and Yagyuu was still there and knew the others present. I had assumed he would... Ryoma-kun, do you think something happened with Fuji and Yukimura?"
Ryoma scowled, finally recognizing the second name - the smiling brunette that had given him casablanca lillies. "I'm sure nothing happened. Thanks, senpai. I'll get back to you about when I'm free."
Ryoma hung up before Inui could inquire further. He glanced over to the cabinet drawer he had thrown all of those precious stones attached to the lillies; while he threw the flowers away once he'd been out of the sight of the creepy pair, he'd taken all of the jewels. (To reiterate - he was a college student. By natural rights, he was allowed to use any means and connections necessary to not starve or be crushed by mounting tuition bills.) He hadn't known what to do with the chocolates, worried they may have poisoned them or something, so he threw them in the garbage with the flora.
Ryoma looked unseeingly at the dubious curry bubbling on the stove. A small smirk appeared on his face a moment later.
"Next is the teddy bear, huh?"
A/N: Kevin has all my love too. His foul mouth can be attributed to his age and social standing - being a foreign exchange student is stressful, and he did grow up in the urban streets. The streets are not polite, and canon-Kevin always seems to act like he has a bone to pick with the world in general. XD
Note 1: 100,000¥ is a little less than $1,300 (US). 80,000¥ is about $1,000 (US). 100,000¥ is about 1,005 EUR. 80,000¥ is about 804 EUR.
Note 2: The casablanca lily means celebration. We can all pretend that the deep meaning in them is that they are celebrating the first unifying motion of the OT6, or we can go with the truth in that the author just likes the flower. XD
Note 3: Yukimura's and Fuji's exchange about luring Ryoma with honey and Tezuka with vinegar. Derived from the saying "It's better to lure flies with honey, rather than vinegar." Basically, they're just saying they forced Tezuka to be with them (vinegar) but are actually trying to court/sweet-talk Ryoma in (honey). The flies lured in are killed in the end, by the way.
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