Pairings: major AkaBun, minor Platinum, minor SanaYuki, minor Data

Chapter Warnings: yaoi/shounen ai

Yukimura Seiichi smiled as he caressed the petals of the pink roses softly and giggled, then reached toward his tape recorder and pressed the RECORD button with his slender, pale finger. "Dear Diary…" he began, tapping his chin slightly in thought as he lay on his stomach, crossing and uncrossing his ankles. "Why must I be cursed with such beauty?"

He stared at the tiny piece of cardboard that he'd plucked from the flowers, and read it again with a slight frown. "Yukimura-chan," he read aloud, "I hope you like the flowers. They're pink, your favorite color…" His delicate eyebrows crinkled.

"Must not be anyone who knows me," he said, dating the card with a skinny purple Sharpie. "My favorite color is blue." He sighed, as if it was the most obvious mistake ever made, then tossed the card into the shoebox he'd marked, "Anonymous Love Notes". He sighed, pushing the box aside disdainfully and rolling onto his back.

Then he sat up, stood up, tightened his short ponytail, tied his peach Juicy sweats, and padded across his pure white carpet to his closet. He stood on his tiptoes and pulled out another shoebox, this one honestly labeled, "Things I Stole from Genichirou". He flipped the lid onto the carpet and stared mournfully at the various writing utensils, a handkerchief, a pair of old fingerless gloves, and the extra key to his house, which Genichirou had "lost" one day.

Yukimura sighed, pulled out the key and let the rest of the box clatter to the floor in what was a genuine slip of his limp hand. He threaded it onto a long, light blue ribbon and tied it around his neck. "Out of all the boys that adore me," he cried mournfully, "why can't Genichirou? It's not fair, Diary!" He gave a deep sigh and rubbed his watering eyes, dropped to his knees, and pressed the STOP on his tape-recorder-journal, too upset to say goodbye.

He sniffed and stared at the objects scattered across his floor despairingly, unwilling to collect them and put them back. He just wanted to sit and brood over his terrible misfortune. He rested his chin on his mattress and stared out the bay window on the other side of his room. Usually, he could look out onto his garden, but it was nighttime, and seeing nothing but black brought him no comfort. For all he knew, all of his beauteous flowers had been swallowed by a giant, nightmarish anaconda.

"Oh, please, God…" he purred, squeezing his eyes shut. "Just give me Genichirou and I'll never ask for anything again!" He hesitated, furrowing his eyebrows. "…Until my birthday," he whispered. "Amen." He opened his eyes and ran his fingers gently over the blue and purple stars speckling his white duvet cover.

Then he stood up straight, smoothed a tube of ultra-rich formula lip balm across his mouth and reached to turn off his light. But as his skinny finger touched the switch, his cell began to ring. Yukimura jumped at the sudden noise, then raced to it and ran a nervous hand through his hair. To his disappointment, it wasn't Sanada, but he accepted the call of duty in any case.

"Hello?" he asked into the phone, then glanced at the clock. It was almost eleven, and usually people didn't call him so late. "Hellooo? Renji?" The Master prattled on from the other end, and his jaw dropped at his friend's desperate tone. He wouldn't need a tape recorder to remember any of this.

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Marui groaned at the sound of his alarm clock, informing him that it was time to get up, get dressed, and spend the next six hours in the headache manufactory and social jungle known as Rikkai Dai Fuzokuchuu. He continued groaning as he rolled out of bed, got to his feet, and walked with his back slumped over severely to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth, staring blankly at himself in the mirror.

He felt so empty, and it wasn't just his stomach. He'd spent the whole night awake, crying his eyes out because of Kirihara. "Stupid Akaya!" he spat, bouncing his wet toothbrush off the sink. He wasn't going to give in to the stinging feeling behind his eyes or his itchy nose. He wasn't going to cry again. He raced back to his room and dressed, not even bothering to brush his hair.

He sighed once he was out the door at the charcoal sky and the sound of thunder. That day was starting to look just as bad as he did.

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"Looks like the beach is off," sighed Marui quietly to himself as Niou tapped his pen nervously against the pages of his history book.

"What?" he asked so quickly and breathlessly that Marui had to roll his eyes.

"I said why don't you try saying sorry?" He chewed on his lip, unhappy with himself that he was trying to satisfy Niou. But what else could he do? His friend's face was bleached out, there were bags under his eyes, his usual radiant grin had turned into the smile of a cancer patient, and he hadn't even spiked his hair that day. Marui buried his face in his hands momentarily—he and Niou were in the same boat. They needed eachother.

"You think I haven't tried that?" moaned Niou, slamming his head down on his book. "Waaaahhh…" He stretched out his arms, letting his pen drop to the floor, and Marui joined him.

"Well, I haven't even talked to Akaya today… He won't look at me." His voice was muffled by the desk as tears leaked slowly out of his eyes. It made him feel better to know that Niou was probably crying too.

"That sucks," the other boy huffed in response.

"Ah, excuse me…" Marui quickly wiped his eyes and lifted his head to see Yanagi standing above Niou, squeezing his shoulders. His heart sank. Niou hadn't been crying at all. "I need to borrow Niou for a minute."

Niou gave a giant 'I-carry-the-weight-of-the-world-on-my-shoulders' sigh, stood up and closed his book. "Oh, and Marui," said Yanagi with a smile. "The regulars are spending the night at the rec center for my birthday. Will you come?"

"Kirihara?" asked Marui quietly, feeling totally pathetic but unable to care. Yanagi chuckled, as if the catastrophic KRAB operation from the previous night had never happened.

"He's a regular, is he not? Sadaharu's going to be there too, so I hope it doesn't bother you…" He ran a hand through his chocolatey hair nervously, a light pink blushing his cheeks. "Our birthdays are only a day apart…"

"He won't," said Marui through gritted teeth, a bitter emotion washing over him. It must've been nice to be in love without annoying Creeps messing everything up.

"Come at seven," he said with a smile. "See you later…"

Niou heaved up his backpack. "Bye, Marui," he said with a very tired smile, then followed Yanagi. Marui waved half-heartedly until they were both gone, leaving him in his homeroom. He sighed and began to shove his things into his backpack as anxious thoughts began to race through his head. What would Kirihara say to him? Would he even talk to him? Would he even look at him? Would he hurt him, or would he even come knowing Marui would be there? Thinking about it all just made him want to cry all over again.

The bell rang, and he got up to leave, tears smudging his skin. He sped out of the room and down the hall, sobbing. He picked up his speed and ran as fast as he could, before he ran into something, smacking his forehead and falling onto his back. He whimpered and grabbed his head and sighed, wiping his tears, slightly relieved that no one had been around to witness that. Then he stared up at what he'd run into. It was a door with a piece of paper taped on it.

He pulled himself up with the wall and gritted his teeth at it. Written across the white expanse of the paper in bright glittery letters were the words "Rikkai Formal This Week!" It was Friday, and that hadn't been there that morning. He screamed in frustration, then tore it down. He didn't want to think about the stupid, stupid formal. He just wanted to go home, crawl into bed and stay there until school started again in the fall. He crumpled it into a ball and was about to stomp on it when he heard a voice.

"What are you doing?" demanded the angry person, and Marui almost peed his pants. He whirled around, dropping the mangled poster to see Sanada Genichirou standing about ten feet away, his arms crossed over his chest, glaring at him.

"O-oh, I was just…" Marui's teeth chattered as he fought back tears, or maybe he was just scared of Sanada. He stared down at the floor and listened to the Emperor's approaching footsteps. Sanada bent down and picked up the trash, then sighed, standing before Marui and straightening out the flyer. "Sorry…"

"You shouldn't vandalize school property," he murmured, and Marui took a step back.

"Yeah, whatever," he muttered, staring at the wrinkled paper in Sanada's hands. His blood ran cold as the larger teen glowered at him. He prepared himself for the lecture, or the slap, whichever came first, but Sanada surprisingly changed the subject.

"You better hurry up before you miss your bus," he said, gesturing towards the door.

Marui shook his head. "No, I walk home," he replied.

Sanada looked pleased. "Good, you're working on your poor endurance."

The redhead frowned, knowing that Sanada hadn't exactly meant that as an insult. "Yeah, sure."

"Hey!" someone called from the end of the hallway. Both regulars turned toward Yukimura, who was standing all alone, one hand behind his back, one waving Sanada's precious baseball cap around. His face was occupied by a toothy grin, giggles seeping from his pretty mouth as if he just couldn't control himself.

He was always so bubbly around Sanada—it made Marui sort of happy but disgusted at the same time. It would be nice to see Yukimura fail at something, as terrible as it might be to admit, and when it came to the impassive swordsman, it was impossible to tell if that would be happening any time soon. Sanada's face didn't change as he watched Yukimura giggle like a hyper little girl. "You forgot this!"

The bluenette scampered forward, immediately tripping on himself and falling flat on his face. Marui's violet eyes shot open wide, and he gasped. Sanada instantly raced to Yukimura's side, and the redhead sheepishly decided to follow. "Are you okay, buchou?" he asked as Sanada knelt down and pulled him up to his knees, revealing Yukimura's flushed face and tear-filled eyes.

"I-I'm sorry!" he blurted, quickly rubbing his eyes. Marui frowned sadly. It was obvious that Yukimura was embarrassed, and probably frustrated by Sanada ignoring him all the time.

The dark-haired boy squeezed him around his shoulders, tugging him a little closer. "Don't worry, Seiichi…" Sanada pulled him up sweetly, accepting his cap and putting it on.

"Yeah," agreed Marui, walking alongside them, his eyes still wide. Oh my God, first name! he mind-squealed, grinning as he carried Yukimura's bag. "It's no big deal. I just ran into the door." He felt like he was watching something exclusive. He was the first one who would know whether or not Sanada Genichirou and Yukimura Seiichi could be a perfect couple or get married! Yukimura glanced at him, his eyes wide and glittering and his hand frantically fanning his flushed face.

Marui gave him two thumbs up and tried to imitate his expression. Sanada was oblivious to all of it as he pushed open the door. Marui scampered out first, and Yukimura separated himself from Sanada. "I'm fine, Genichirou," he murmured quietly, and Sanada looked him over.

"You sure?" he asked, his brown eyes roving over him. "It would really suck if you couldn't play in the next game…" he trailed off, and Yukimura gave Marui a miffed glance, which he returned with a pout. Yukimura was obviously frustrated by Sanada's one-track mind. It was even a bit annoying to Marui, and he didn't even hang out with him as much.

"It'll be fine," he muttered, staring at the ground. "Just forget it."

"Wait," said Sanada hastily, wrapping a muscular arm around Yukimura's feminine waist. "You're not upset, are you?" Just like that, the captain's flushed face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"No, I'm not upset," he chuckled, scooting closer to Sanada. Marui squinted as the bright sunlight outside hit him in the face. He couldn't decide if he was happy for Yukimura, annoyed, or just disgusted. It would've had to be all three. "See you tonight," said Yukimura softly to Marui as they parted ways, and he returned his backpack. They lived on opposite sides of the city.

The redhead smiled, slightly relieved to get away from the lovebirds. "Yep," he said, "See ya." Sanada paid no attention to the fact that Marui was leaving them and just kept walking. Yukimura skipped to keep up with him. Marui watched them for a few more seconds, then began to walk down the street in the direction of his house.

Without them, the only distractions possible, he was alone with only himself to talk to. He was determined not to cry as memories of the past week flooded his brain like a hurricane, a natural disaster that no one could stop. He felt like smashing his head into a wall. Sadly, he wondered if Kirihara did the same thing when he was alone.

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Yanagi sighed impatiently into the phone as he watched Niou, who was sitting on his bed, vying ardently to solve his Rubix sphere. "No, Sadaharu, we have it under control…" He paused and crinkled his thin eyebrows as he listened to the voice prattling on the other end. "Please, don't… We don't need anyone meddling…" He looked up at Niou, who had assumed fetal position, his lithe fingers becoming more and more sluggish. "I know that… It's already bad enough… No, I really don't think— …How could juice help?"

Yanagi chewed his bottom lip in frustration, and Niou finally dropped the puzzle, letting it roll onto the floor, and buried his face in Yagyuu's black American Apparel hoodie, which he'd shamelessly stolen. "Look, I have to go. I have to take a shower. We can talk about it later tonight…" Yanagi grinned slowly as he listened to his friend mumbling on the other end. He blushed. "What?" he demanded, failing to arouse Niou. He lowered his tone. "Goodbye, Sadaharu." he slid his cell closed and set it next to his keyboard, then began to type furiously. "Don't worry, Masaharu," he began sympathetically as his fingers flew over the keys.

He heard the Trickster sit up with a sniffle. "Puri?" His voice was dull and lifeless, and his tanned face was streaked with tears. Yanagi paused from typing for a moment to click on his inbox. It was mostly spam.

"Yagyuu can't stay mad at you forever…" He skimmed the e-mails until he found Yagyuu's reply, then smirked as he began to dispose of the rest of them.

"How do you know that?" Niou slowly folded and unfolded the corner of Yanagi's soft, soothingly grey duvet.

"Because," he began sarcastically, "you still have his hoodie." Yanagi grinned as he pressed the delete button.

A/N: Okay, short chapter and long wait. I'm sorry everyone! I'll try to get the next one out waaay sooner… Love you, ciao.

Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis and I never will!