Characters: Yukimura Seiichi, Sanada Genichiro, Yanagi Renji, Kirihara Akaya

Pairings: onesided!SanaYuki, onesided!YanaYuki, YukiKiri

Universe: Anime

Warnings: shounen-ai, spoilers for a lot of things

For ChiyakoChan, who leaves encouraging words in her reviews :)

Read the footnotes (the numbers in square brackets) at the end! They are IMPORTANT. I can't stress this enough.

The students are being likened to cherry blossoms again.

It's their third year as Rikkaidai middle school students. It's their third year as Rikkaidai tennis regulars. It's their last year as both.

Tennis is what's occupying their minds. The club will fall apart with the seniors gone. The tournament is nearing. What will we do? Will Rikkai lose? From kings, will we turn into servants? From demons, will we be tamed?

Yukimura barks out an order in the middle of the hushed whispers. "Are you doubting our future captain?" he says. He quickly follows it with an order for twenty laps, and when Kirihara arrives late, Yukimura gives him fifty. [1]

Act I. I Rest the Future on Your Shoulders has ended

Yukimura is not ignorant of the longing stares. When his eyes turn to meet the deep green stare boring into his back, Kirihara flushes and looks down at his feet. The ball whizzes past Kirihara's locks and clangs noisily on the chain-link fence.

"Kirihara, ten laps. Focus on the game."

Definitely, Yanagi isn't ignorant of Kirihara's behavior either. He gives the junior a knowing smile, to which Kirihara gives him a questioning glance before leaving to the court perimeter and starting with his laps.

"Yukimura," Yanagi calls. He walks up to his buchou and smiles enigmatically. "Ten laps? That's a thirty percent drop, compared to the number of laps you usually give out. Getting soft?"

Yukimura answers Yanagi's I-know-something-you-don't smile with a lethal one of this own. "Yanagi? Mind multiplying the number of laps assigned to Kirihara by seven?"

"...Seventy?"

Yukimura's grin stretches wider. "Seventy~ laps for you!"

Yanagi notes that this is the first time Yukimura has smiled since his hospitalization during their second year, and he succumbs to his fate of running laps with a halfhearted grin.

(It's a bit later when he comes across Kirihara, and the younger is brushing his fingertips against spots of black and blue on his torso.)

Act II. I Will Change has ended

Sanada knows all too well that Yukimura is definitely changing. His commands are soft, his hand shakes when he returns a smash, his breath comes out in wheezes. Or maybe, maybe Sanada is just being too paranoid, and he constantly tries to remind himself that Yukimura isn't some kind of glass doll.

He returns Yukimura's cross shot with a weakened Lightning.

Sanada can see it when Yukimura tries to return. His arm is too tense. When he breathes, it's as if he's forcing his body to. His wrist is shaking. His racket is blown away and clatters to the ground, and for a moment, the spotlight is on them.

"Are you fine, Yukimura?"

"I'm fine, Sanada," he hisses out. He picks up his racquet from the floor, and when he realizes that all the tennis club members are looking at him worriedly, he sighs. "...I'm sorry, Sanada. Student Council paperwork has taken its toll on me," Yukimura says, and at the end of his sentence he lets out a breathless chuckle. "Shall we continue?"

Sanada opts not to say anything and serves the ball. A few minutes after, practice ends, and Yanagi shares that the power in Yukimura's shots have decreased by half. The two are left hoping it isn't last year's winter repeating itself, and everyone bids goodbye and heads home.

When he thinks no one is looking, Yukimura lets out a breath he doesn't realize he's been holding and shudders, leaning on the nearest wall. His cheeks flush, his knees give way, and he forces himself to breathe.

It's not too long after that that he ends up hospitalized again.

Act III. I Am What I Will has ended

When Yukimura wakes up, there isn't anyone sitting on the visitor's chair. Not that he's expecting anyone to. It's around three, after all.

"Oh, you're awake..."

The heart rate monitor's beeps come faster than normal.

The door opens and closes to his right, and Yukimura smiles. "Kirihara, are you, by any chance, skipping practice?"

The visitor's chair screeches against the tile as Kirihara drags it to Yukimura's bedside. He takes a seat on the wooden chair and rests his head on the edge of Yukimura's bed. "...I was excused from practice for a week. I decided to visit you since I wasn't allowed to do anything."

The heart rate monitor beeps even faster.

At this, Yukimura lies on his side to face him. "Why? Did you get into an accident? We can't have you injured when the Regionals are near."

But Kirihara can't answer as the nurse ushers him out. [2] The beeping goes back into a normal pace after a few minutes, and even when the nurse tells him not to get worked up like that and leaves, Kirihara's already left.

The next day, no one comes to visit him, and the sunflowers on the end table start to wilt.

Maybe, just maybe, he shouldn't have been expecting too much. After all, the Regionals are drawing its jaws nearer by the second, and everyone is too busy practicing. Yukimura was just one among the several hundred members on the club; cutting one off won't affect anyone too much.

They'll manage without me.

Kirihara comes back the day after. He staggers to the visitor's chair and, once again, drags it to Yukimura's bedside. A sigh escape his lips when he finally plops down on the seat.

"...You're limping," is all Yukimura says, but he's eying the bandages winding up Kirihara's arm. There's also a slight restraint when Kirihara moves his torso. "Is your chest bandaged too?"

"...Maybe."

Yukimura lets out a halfhearted chuckled. "Are you asking for laps, Kirihara?"

Kirihara winces guiltily. "...I fell down the stairs. I got a bit too tired after practice and ended up tripping."

Yukimura raises an eyebrow. "You mentioned that you were excused from practice for a week."

"...oh."

The silence stretches on. Kirihara rests his head on Yukimura's bed again, but Yukimura's hand in gently twirling the black locks he's buried his fingers in. Slowly, so slowly, that neither of them have realized until too late, Kirihara eases into the warm touch and buries his face in the sheets.

Kirihara is trying to convince his captain (and himself) that he isn't crying and tightens his jaw.

It's the day Yukimura learns that Kirihara thinks of school as home, going home as work, [3] and he realizes that maybe, maybe Kirihara is confused. Confused like him, here and now, almost giving up the life that he was blessed to own.

And Yukimura decides to stay and drag Kirihara back with him to living the life he's been living all along, and to go back to the world. The world that is the Rikkai Dai Middle School Tennis Club.

(Everyone is waiting for them.)

Act IV. I Wish You Well has ended

Dear Kirihara,

Yanagi brings out the best in me.

Sanada brings out the worst.

You—

The last line stretches on crookedly to the lower right corner from a half-completed 'o'.

Kirihara stuffs the note in his bag and makes his way to the hospital.

Kirihara is aware that he is risking a lot to say the words on the tip of his tongue. Yukimura is aware of the desperation in those green eyes in that they may never see each other again, and eggs him on.

"Mura-buchou?"

"Yes?"

The small piece of paper in Kirihara's hands crumple into a ball as Kirihara clenches his fingers into a fist. "I... I what?"

Yukimura smiles weakly.

Neither of them are stupid. Kirihara would be busy with his position as the team captain. Yukimura would leave for high school.

Yanagi would gently pluck the cherry blossom petals out of Yukimura's hair. Sanada's fingers would often accidentally brush against Yukimura's own. And even though neither Kirihara nor Yukimura are stupid, they take the most difficult path anyway. [4]

"You opened my eyes to the world."

Whereas I would say that the final act has ended here, our journey continues as we live on, laugh on, and I am always relishing the little spark of warmth in my fingers in the form of his hand in mine.

[1] Future captain = Kirihara, seeing as he's the only second year to be a regular.

[2] Usually, when a patient in critical suddenly gets a raise in heart rate/brain activity, a nurse/doctor comes in to check immediately.

[3] I'm sorry if this is confusing you any, but it was pretty hard weaving it into the story slowly. It can be that Kirihara's being abused by a family member or a neighbor, and that he confessed he was considering suicide... Kinda like how Yukimura's been thinking that maybe the tennis club doesn't need him after all and he should just give up his life, including the fact that he thinks they should end his misery already. But in the end they stick together and try to find the light in each other. Or something. Gah.

Also, the club let Kirihara break for a week because, during the first act, Yanagi found that out, and he spilled, and Kirihara gets banhammer.

[4] Think about it. Your boyfriend is going to high school, where most of the faggotry (otherwise known as work) handed out by teachers increases by two, and where he's likely to be a sports club captain again. Your hands are full with taking care of a sports club. And you and your boyfriend know that your boyfriend has two other friends (who he will probably see two times more than you, seeing as they're in the same year) who have crushes on him.

...Hey, I think that's hard enough for a student. D:

Words: 1389

A/N: Aaah! So many footnotes!

Back to the point; please request either a character/pairing/situation, because I'm cool and want my readers to be satisfied. Srsly. Oh, and a Ryoma/Yuuta is coming up next~ :3

Oh, and mind voting at my poll? It's over at my profile, if anyone's interested. Thanks~

(Sanada-baby wants you to click that magic review button. Tarundoru.)