Title: Fictional Truth
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: not mine, cool? cool.
Even though he wasn't normally one for sentimentality, Niou hung the rose on his wall to let it dry. The note he tucked into his ID case, neatly hidden behind his ID card so that only he knew it was there. He wasn't sure if his feelings for Yanagi were quite that strong yet though, so he didn't say anything about it.

Niou whistled as he waited at the bus stop the day of Kantou finals. His life was pretty good. He had a boyfriend who occasionally left him notes in his locker, each of which he kept in a box in a corner of his desk. Yagyuu had backed off after their talk, and their close friendship picked right back up. They were going to partner that day, in fact.

"Yagyuu, why do you have Niou's bag?" Sanada seemed honestly confused when he first arrived at the bus stop. Niou grinned as understanding washed over his vice captain. "Wait, you're... Niou?"

Sanada was the only one who hadn't seen the two of them in makeup yet, so Niou was pretty happy with the reaction he received. "Yup. Surprised?"

"Are you sure this is going to work? You can't lose."

Niou sighed. Sanada had been concerned about his plan from the start, and had only let them practice when Yanagi pointed out that Niou and Yagyuu being able to do each other's signature moves only meant twice the destructive power. "It'll be fine, Sanada. They won't know what hit them. Just watch."

"Genichirou. Yagyuu." Yanagi walked up to them, clearly preoccupied with something else. Niou raised an eyebrow and exchanged a glance with Sanada. Yanagi had to be really out of it to neither remember that Yagyuu and Niou were switching places, nor recognize that it was Niou standing in front of him, not Yagyuu.

"We're just missing Niou and Kirihara now, huh?" Jackal and Marui walked up. They still had a few minutes before the bus arrived, but Sanada pulled out his cell phone to make sure the two stragglers were at least awake. Niou winked at Marui before he corrected Jackal's statement.

"Renji." Niou adjusted his glasses in perfect imitation of Yagyuu.

That seemed to snap Yanagi out of his stupor as he glared at Yagyuu briefly. The glare faded into confusion, and then understanding as the rest of the team started laughing. "There it is." Marui had a wide grin across his face as he popped a stick of gum in his mouth.

"Wow. I didn't realize the makeup was that good." Yanagi moved to stand by Niou, gently brushing a stray strand of hair back into place.

"I spent an extra fifteen minutes perfecting it this morning." Niou grinned. Yanagi smiled gently in response. Niou cocked his head to the side. "Are you OK?"

"Yea, yea. I'm just a little worried."

"Don't be. Everything's going to be OK. We're going to win, and give Yukimura the championship before his surgery. Then, his surgery's going to go well, and everything will be OK." Niou squeezed Yanagi's hand as Kirihara ran up, Yagyuu not far behind.

"Huh? What's going on between you two? Am I still sleeping?" Kirihara rubbed his eyes, yawning, just as the bus pulled up.

"Look closer - that's Niou. You should stop playing so many video games and go to sleep earlier." Yagyuu's hand twitched, but he didn't move it to his face. Niou grinned - it had taken awhile, but he had managed to train Yagyuu out of compulsively reaching for his glasses when he needed something to do with his hands. Kirihara stared, muttered something about how the seniors shouldn't be playing tricks with his mind so early in the morning, and promptly fell asleep as soon as he got on the bus.

"Finally, we get to play the Golden Pair." Yagyuu appeared as excited as Niou felt. Niou enjoyed kicking the asses of players who thought they were good. He especially enjoyed utterly destroying other supposedly good doubles teams with Yagyuu.

"Play nice now, Niou." Niou smiled, though he couldn't help letting a little secretiveness slip into the curve of his lips. It wasn't as though Seigaku could read that anyway.

When Yagyuu screwed up and hit the real laser beam, Niou grinned. Now the fun would actually start. "Can you believe the look on their faces, Yagyuu?" He handed the glasses back to Yagyuu, "Come on, we've got a game to win." Indeed, the rest of the match was a breeze. The Golden Pair couldn't even touch any of Yagyuu's real lasers, and they were still recovering from the shock when Niou delivered the finishing blow.

"Game-set! Won by Rikkai, Niou-Yagyuu pair! Six-games-to-one!"

Niou pumped his fist in the air, receiving an answering gesture from Yagyuu. He grabbed Yanagi's hand in a half-victory, half-good luck shake as they passed each other on the courts. Yagyuu climbed to the top of the bleachers with him after he'd pulled out his weights to start his post-match exercises, sitting down a little bit away from main crowd gathered to watch the match. "I told you we'd beat them. If they're gold, then we are so platinum."

Yagyuu gently rolled his eyes, smiling as his breathing slowed back to normal. Even though they didn't want to admit it, the match had been slightly harder than they'd expected. As Yanagi's match against his old partner, Inui Sadaharu, started, Yagyuu suddenly spoke. "Did you get my present the other day?"

"What present?" Niou was genuinely confused. He thought back to the last time he saw Yagyuu, and the time in between, and couldn't think of anything.

"That Monday after octofinals. I was wondering why you hadn't said anything yet. I put a rose in your locker, along with a note? I've been leaving you notes in your locker these past two weeks; maybe I've gotten the wrong locker or something." Yagyuu clearly didn't look like he thought he'd mixed up the lockers. It was clear from the tone of his voice that he knew perhaps Niou had just thought those were from Yanagi.

"That was from you? Those... those were from you?" Niou's eyes widened in shock.

"Niou, don't tell me that after all these years of copying my notes, you still don't recognize my handwriting?" Yagyuu was definitely enjoying this. Gentleman or not, Niou was still absolutely certain that Yagyuu's sadistic streak ran a mile wider and deeper than his own.

"Your handwriting is really generic!" Niou was getting too worked up over this. Yanagi glanced over at them from the courts, and Niou gave him a thumbs-up sign.

"Then you couldn't recognize it as not Yanagi's?" When Niou sputtered, Yagyuu continued. "Niou. I told you. I love you, and I know you love me. You're just confused, because Yanagi got to you before I did. I'm sorry, I was wrong, I shouldn't have tried to forget about you, I should have told you how I felt from the start. But you don't have to keep punishing the both of us for this. Yanagi, too - don't you think this is hurting him as well, the longer you go on with this little revenge of your's?"

"You're wrong. I don't love you. I'm with Yanagi."

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you don't love me, and that you love Yanagi. If you can do that, I promise, I'll stop bothering you."

He knew it was a bad idea to ever, ever look Yagyuu Hiroshi in the eyes when he wanted something. That was why he'd refused to face him for their first talk about their situation. He knew it, but he did it because Yagyuu's promises were as good as gold. Niou put his weights down and turned to look at Yagyuu. "I..." Yagyuu had taken off his glasses again, and his eyes looked straight at Niou, unhindered by any wires or pieces of glass. Niou received the full brunt of the intensity of Yagyuu's gaze, and he just felt how Yagyuu's eyes were full of, yes, that was definitely love. His resolve shattered. He tried to look over at the match, to remind himself of who his boyfriend was and why he was saying these words, but he couldn't because Yagyuu's eyes were so green, so warm, so familiar, so full of love - all for him. "I don't..."

Yagyuu leaned forward, touching their lips together. "...love you." Niou's words were barely a whisper. His desperate attempt to finish his statement against Yagyuu's mouth only granted Yagyuu the opportunity to tilt his head and deepen the kiss. Niou's eyes fell shut of their own volition as Yagyuu raised a hand to caress his neck. He grasped on to that hand and the world spiraled away as the man that he'd dreamed of for weeks slipped his tongue inside his mouth, gently running it along his teeth and sliding it against Niou's own tongue. He forgot to breathe - no, he didn't need to, because Yagyuu was his air. He could finally breathe again.

"Love you, too," Yagyuu whispered back to him, pressing their foreheads together. Even though the cheering around them was deafeningly loud - something exciting must have happened in the match - Niou could still hear Yagyuu's words as if he were the only one speaking.

"Yagyuu-"

"Use my name."

"Yagyuu."

"Masaharu. I'm going to keep saying it until you believe me. I'm never going to give up on you. I love you. I love you. I. Love. You."

"Yagyuu." Niou hated that his eyes were suddenly wet, and was glad they were still closed so he didn't have to look at Yagyuu.

"Stubborn." Yagyuu pressed another kiss to Niou's lips, and Niou could taste a salty wetness on Yagyuu's lips that wasn't there before.

"Game-set! Won by Seigaku, Inui! Seven-games-to-six!"

"Oh shit."


SAP! Oh well, Yagyuu's like that, in my head.
And I know I'm blatantly changing parts of what happened in the manga, but meh. P