I didn't expect to update so quickly (for my standards anyway, ahaha), but I was up last night writing this because I couldn't sleep! Of course, I feel like a zombie right now, but... at least we're one step towards more Marui x Ryoma lovin' eh?
Thank you to Tearful Shadows, Ciel D'or Serendipite, poisson, Tiger723, iKitsuNeko, FranscoiseLaraLapis, Joey Ketail and Bi Sis of 8 for your lovely, supportive reviews! I find myself grinning to myself in class when I think about your reviews, ehehe. It's like a barrier between me and the teacher's dronings, y' know? :D IT WORKS LIKE MAGIC!
OHHH, and thank you Tearful Shadows, Tiger723, iKitsuNeko and FranscoiseLaraLapis for reviewing loads of times! I love you guys so much, come here and let me give you a kiss! T_T Please!
Alright, anyway, here's the next chapter!
Marui fiddled with his cell phone wistfully, his brows furrowing slightly as he stared at the slightly flickering screen.
There hadn't been any new messages from Ryoma for the past week, which was a record in itself. Usually, they would message each other a few times daily to check up on their progress in tennis, if they were feeling well, or whenever they wanted to eat lunch out together.
Was he busy…?
Admittedly, Marui hadn't been able to message Ryoma as much as he'd wanted for the past week, due to the suddenly rigorous training menu forced upon them by their heartless vice-captain. He swore that he'd caught a sadistic gleam of satisfaction in Sanada's eyes as he watched their team do their allotted 1000 push-ups. After their hellish training, Marui had all but passed out on the couch after taking a shower, and he hadn't had the time to think of anything else.
A hint of doubt wormed itself into Marui's heart, making his heart throb slightly. Maybe Ryoma had stopped contacting him because Marui had?
Maybe it had been because he hadn't texted Ryoma for a while, because he felt unusually anxious. And so he stood there, his phone drawn out, palms still sweating slightly from the vigorous exercise he had just endured.
But his mind continued to draw up nothing but blanks. He couldn't imagine in the slightest how he was supposed to start this conversation. As he stood around, his eyebrows knitted in seriousness, he didn't even realize when Jackal strolled by, openly observing the empty message over his shoulder. Without any warning, Jackal tutted into his ear, making him jump reflexively.
"Wah! Jackal!" He cried out, spinning around quickly to hide the name of the recipient on his phone. 'Ryoma' shone brightly on the top of his screen. Damn, it would be bad to flash that name around here, especially with Sanada watching.
Jackal shook his head, chuckling, as if he had already seen who he was messaging, and that Marui's attempts to hide it were nothing but futile.
"So, I'll take it that you haven't been seeing that Seigaku rookie for quite a while," Jackal remarked, patting his doubles partner on the shoulder.
Marui's shoulders drooped slightly in depression. Jackal however, didn't seem to be mocking him, so he simply nodded quietly in response.
"We've been so busy with practice that it just sort of… slipped my mind…" he mumbled almost inaudibly. Anyone could see how dejected he was, but Jackal couldn't blame him. The practice Yukimura had dished out the past week was almost like torture, to the point where even he, one of the more resilient players on the team, was having a hard time simply catching up with schoolwork when practice ended.
"Well then, what are you waiting for? Not for Echizen to text you first, surely," Jackal scoffed, shaking his head at the thought of Ryoma taking the initiative. Not possible.
Marui bit his lip and stared down at his phone again, typing a few keys into it before erasing it again. "Ahh! I can't do it!" Marui groaned, snapping his phone shut again. "But I have to! These kinds of things always snowball into something scarier in the end!" He opened the phone again, before sighing loudly. "But I just can't!"
Marui had half a mind to throw his cell phone onto the net and perform his famed Tightrope Walking with it before Jackal snatched it out of his hands.
"Ugh, give it here, you're being annoying," Jackal muttered. He immediately began to press a few keys on his phone, making Marui freeze in shock, before leaping in action.
"Hey, give it back!" Marui leapt towards Jackal, hissing like a cat with its claws extended. Jackal took three steps back and raised his cell phone out of his reach, flashing him an amused smile.
"Well, just hold on for a little, Bunta," he attempted to calm him down, while he pressed multiple buttons on his phone expertly. Marui renewed his efforts to grab the phone back, inwardly cursing the height advantage Jackal had over him.
"W-Wait! What are you going to-" he cried out in panic as Jackal clicked something that looked suspiciously like a send button.
"And I'm done." Jackal grinned, tossing the cell phone back to Marui, who caught it with unsteady hands. He glared up at his doubles partner, his expression radiating silent fury.
"What... did... you... do...?" He demanded, gritting his teeth. Jackal shrugged and smiled in an almost annoying fashion. It was an oddly knowing look.
The empty cell phone screen didn't reveal anything, so he quickly changed to his message screen, where he checked his inbox and sent messages with a few flicks of his finger. Right at the top of the top of his latest sent messages was something he definitely hadn't typed himself.
He went pale with apprehension, and slowly, he selected the message and opened it, waiting with bated breath as it loaded. As the message Jackal had sent to Ryoma loaded, his eyes went wide, and Jackal read the message over his shoulder proudly.
"Good afternoon, my dearest Ryoma-chan! What are you doing on a fantastically romantic day like this? Let's go on a date soon!"
Jackal chuckled happily at the sight of Marui's trembling shoulders. "Bunta, you don't really have to be that touched. I know, I'm your doubles partner after all! Doing this is a natural course of action-"
"Like hell it is!" Marui snapped, stomping his foot on the ground. He was being childish, he knew, but this was Ryoma they were talking about! The only person he had wanted to impress so badly, even more than the time he had cooked a boiled egg in front of his mom for the first time! Yes! Ryoma was just that important to him, and Jackal... He shot a glare at his doubles partner, who was either clueless or superbly good at acting... Jackal had definitely ruined his chances with Ryoma! He'd think that he acted super girly in messages and refuse to hang out with him anymore!
Come to think of it... He didn't really think it was true but there was a very real possibility... Did Jackal actually type like that on a daily basis? …Damn, it was a good thing they weren't texting buddies. He'd have gotten a serious migraine in the first five minutes they conversed on the phone.
"Like I said, what's wrong, Bunta?" Jackal sighed for the umpteenth time, still leaning over and gazing at the phone sadly. "I mean, I just helped you ask Echizen out in a really romantic manner, right?"
Marui's eyes widened in disbelief. This was romantic?! He wasn't being fooled around with?
He gazed at his partner seriously, noticing with a tinge of horror that Jackal looked genuinely clueless, and sighed loudly. "It's okay, Jackal. It's okay if you don't know. You'll be much better off this way. Ignorance is bliss and all that."
Jackal's horrified reply was cut off by Marui's phone, which vibrated silently in his palm.
Marui paled, zoning out from his surroundings immediately. Jackal's voice faded off into the background as he slowly checked his cell phone screen.
One new message... from Ryoma. And there was no subject title. How ominous.
Oh no. He was really beginning to feel the fear overtaking him now.
Slowly, he clicked the message. Please don't be angry, Ryoma! He prayed inwardly, closing his eyes.
"Who are you? You're not Marui-senpai. That's creepy."
For a moment, he stared at the message. Then slowly, he began to laugh softly, before it grew even worse, and he had to lean onto the wall for support, tears of mirth in his eyes.
"Hahaha! Look at this, Jackal!" He showed the screen to his partner, who narrowed his eyes and looked faintly annoyed.
"What does he mean by 'creepy'? I put all of my manly spirit in that message too!"
Manly spirit. In a way, that was kind of disturbing and creepy as well.
"Well anyway, I should..." He was going to reply Ryoma's message, but before his finger had reached the button, a familiar, loud and terrifying voice reached his ears.
"What are the two of you doing? Get back to practice this instant!" Sanada, for of course it was him, stood from afar, his arms crossed as he surveyed them with narrowed eyes.
Marui and Jackal flinched, the former discreetly trying to hide his cell phone somewhere, before Sanada spoke up again.
"Marui... What are you doing with your phone?" His tone was cold and stiff, showing that any attempt to lie to him would be unforgivable. Jackal, who already had his tennis racket in hand, stood there awkwardly, his gaze flickering to meet Marui's for a split second.
Sanada didn't even have to turn around to know that Jackal was still standing there, waiting for his partner. "Jackal, go and run some laps. There is no need for you to stay here any longer, is there?"
"Ah... Yes, of course." Jackal said hesitantly, shooting Marui another worried glance before he set off for the courts.
"So?" Sanada pushed for an answer, his impenetrable gaze pinning Marui to the ground.
"Uh... I..." He stuttered, not really knowing what he was about to say. He couldn't say that he was texting Ryoma after all...
... Not after Sanada had warned him numerous times in his rather threatening text messages.
Before he could think of something to say, there was a loud, grating laughter near the courts, just loud enough for Sanada to hear.
"Ahaha, Sanada-buchou isn't here, so we can rest for a little! Man, I was so pooped out from training!"
Holy. Marui instantly felt sorry for the figure who was standing there. Those curly locks looked familiar.
Sanada turned rigid as his gaze moved away slowly from Marui, and locked onto his new target. He had already begun to move almost soundlessly, a look of utter displeasure set on his features.
"We'll continue this later," he told Marui over his shoulder, before he continued to stride towards the courts. A deadly whisper escape his lips, making Marui shudder in fear for the poor target. "Akaya..."
Oh... Now that he said it... Marui looked over at the courts as well. That black, curly hair... Yep. It was Kirihara Akaya. A surge of compassion swept through his heart as he pondered on what would happen to his poor junior. Still, Kirihara had unsuspectingly saved him, so be owed him an apology later on.
Tucking his cell phone back into his the deep crevices of his bag, Marui set off to the courts as well, swerving to avoid any possible eye contact with Sanada.
He'd reply Ryoma later, he smiled to himself, already planning out his message.
Ryoma stared at the message he had received from Marui's cell phone. It was the first text he had received in a while, so he had opened it quickly, a small smile already on his lips... until he read the first line. Or rather, the whole message. The smile dropped off as quickly as it had appeared.
"Good afternoon, my dearest Ryoma-chan! What are you doing on a fantastically romantic day like this? Let's go on a date soon!"
Man. It didn't look like it had been written by a sane person at all, much less Marui-senpai, who he now looked up to.
Well, it had his number and everything, but that was the only thing that fit. If he hadn't had Marui as his contact, he would've thought the message was sent by a perverted stalker or something.
And what was this 'Ryoma-chan?' It sent a nasty, tingling feeling up his spine and he shuddered involuntarily.
This was clearly the work of someone else. Who was close enough to Marui for him to use his phone without him knowing...?
His first thought was Jackal, but he immediately scrapped the idea from his mind. There was no way Kuwahara-san would do something as girly as this!
... Girly?
As far as he knew, Marui was pretty good looking, so it wasn't far-fetched to think that it was a girl doing this... right?
His heart sank as he dwelled on that particular train of thought. He shook his head lightly. No point worrying about it.
What should he reply...? Well, he thought it was creepy, so...
Smirking slightly, he sent his reply and waited, wondering if he would receive a reply.
Still, the message had said something about a date... right? Ryoma felt his cheeks grow slightly warmer.
A date with Marui-senpai...
"Echizen, let's go to get burgers again!" Momoshiro was back, a broad smile on his face. He was in high spirits now that Ryoma hadn't been out with Marui for the past week. Maybe it was over between them. Hah! Too bad for you, pink-haired bastard! He grinned triumphantly in his mind.
Ryoma didn't reply right away though, he was staring at the phone he had in his hand, just like he had a few weeks ago, when he was messaging someone, most probably Marui. Momoshiro's smile faltered slightly.
"Ah, Momo-senpai," Ryoma, finally realizing that Momoshiro was looming above him. He slipped his phone back into his pocket and picked up his tennis bag.
"Sure, let's go." Ryoma nodded at his friend, and they walked off together.
He had gotten back into his routine of having lunch with the power player, and although it was still fairly enjoyable, he realized that he couldn't help missing Marui. It was a lonely feeling. Still, Marui seemed to be busy for the past week, for he hasn't sent a single message. Likewise, Ryoma didn't send him any as well, thinking that it would be bad to distract him from whatever he was doing.
Still, he had received a message now. Not from Marui, hopefully (he didn't want to think that the girly messaging style belonged to the senior he looked up to), but he now had the perfect excuse to message him! It was going to be a good day.
Momoshiro quickly schooled his emotions into that of friendliness, masking the hostility which had been building up within him the moment he saw Ryoma's phone.
How he wished to crush that tiny device in the palm of his hand.
With that last ominous thought, he followed the unsuspecting Ryoma, smiling at the appropriate times as they discussed what they would have for lunch.
Yeah. He had to get rid of the bug soon, or he wouldn't be able to get Ryoma.
The sooner, the better.
Congratulations to the person who guessed that it was Sanada! 'Cause you're absolutely right! :D That's actually only for Marui though, since Sanada doesn't know Ryoma's phone number (lol).
Anyway, I was listening to the Yandere Heaven Black drama CD, (the BL version of course! xD) and I wrote this chapter after that... So maybe Momoshiro might be turning a little yandere over here... Uhoh. I didn't mean to do it, really! Oh well. They say that cheerful people are hidden killers and all that! (That excludes you and me, of course, HAHA)
If you're upset about the lack of Marui and Ryoma interactions in this chapter, don't worry! I AM TOO! They'll be in the next chapter, don't worry :)
Don't forget to review! :)
Thanks for reading!