A/N: It has been 11 days since I've had internet access. It was a painful experience. I never want to go through that again. Apparently the family computer kept shorting out the phones and since I have dial-up... no internet. No phones either. I felt like I was stranded. But that's over and soon I will be back at school with highspeed and no worries. Other than this new roommate of mine. I didn't want one to begin with but I certainly didn't want the old one either. He was a senior. It would have been awkward. Hopefully this ones a freshman. I could deal with a freshman. He'd probably just move out if he couldn't take living with me. I know I would if I were him. Oh well, everyone should have a roommate at least once, Rommel says. Of course she has a single this year so she's being just a tad snarky about it because I had one last year when her roommate was a Klepto.

Ain't life grand?

On a positive note my chapters are steadily increasing length. This chapter was just over three thousand words. A little more experience and I'll be all the way there.

Warning: I've gone back to KHII for now. Something about a creature with 50 million health (roughly) just doesn't sit right with me for some reason.

Chapter 11: The One With The Ultimate Bastard

Inui was taking an active interest in Kaidoh's well being.

He was most certainly not, as Eiji so callously refers to it, "stalking" Kaidoh.

…

His story would be less suspect, he felt, if he didn't spend such a lot of time hiding around corners and under hedges. But if it was a choice between others misinterpreting the facts and the proper care and attention to detail he felt was necessary in a truly concerned senpai, then their opinions could be damned. After all he spent a good deal of time sp- observing the other members of the team. (Except for Fuji of course. Never Fuji. Ever since the bowling incident, being left alone in the tensai's presence made him break out in a cold sweat.) The fact that the amount of time he spent studying Kaidoh was equal to that he spent on the rest of the team was a mere, hmm, fluke. A statistical anomaly as it were. Anyway he was personally involved in his workout régime and was also his occasional doubles partner. (He tried to ignore the knowledge that if something unfortunate were to happen to Momo, the occasional would be dropped from the title. He did, however, need a test subject for his health drinks…)

And then there were the notebooks.

Inui sighed. Some things just didn't bear thinking about. So he chose not to do it. After all he was witnessing something right in front of him that called for a great deal of pondering. And, possibly, a plan of action.

He had thought it was unusual when Kaidoh asked him about Saeki. Kaidoh's general interest in other tennis players typically boiled down to levels:

1.) Rivals. (As in players he can be near who don't get under his skin. Teammates included.)

2.) Annoying rivals. (People like Kamio and, once upon a time, Ryoma.)

3.) Momo

Seigaku's Viper didn't think of people in the typical friend/foe format. They were all enemies. He just happened to be on a team with people who, while still adversaries, were less so than the people he happened to be playing against at the time, such as Rokkaku for example.

Which was why Inui was having a hard time coming to terms with his Kouhai having a non-tennis related meeting with a category 1 player. After all, the only conclusion he could come to involved the loss of Ryoma to Momo which he hadn't heard about (an inner Inui jigged about in glee at the thought), although Kaidoh probably would have found out first if that had happened. Which meant that Kaidoh had moved on ... to Saeki (jigging Inui grew fangs at this and his glasses glinted ominously as he tried to decide between a knife and a mostly purple beaker that was foaming at the lip.)

Inui had thought that the difficult part in all of this was keeping out of sight while he followed Kaidoh. The bus had been a particular experience. One where he had to use another person for cover while Kaidoh glanced around out of sheer boredom. Most people would have had a bit of a problem with that. He would have been happier if that most had been an all. Old women could get some funny ideas.

He shuddered slightly at the recollection. Pinching should be a capital offence he felt. Nevertheless he'd gotten all the way to Rokkaku Middle School before trouble settled in. He'd thought that the only people there were Kaidoh and Saeki, Kaidoh obviously having called ahead to arrange this meeting which did nothing for Inui's morale. He'd thought he'd have to teach the boy how to dial a phone to ever get a call. And for some reason Kaidoh had stopped answering calls from his ssenpai after that embarrassing hehe misunderstanding at the street courts.

Nevertheless there they were, Kaidoh looking uncomfortable as he does in regards to anything involving a social situation and Saeki being his usual charming, light-hearted self. It made inui sick. He'd thought to use the cover of the playground equipment to get close enough to eavesdrop on the pair when Kentarou had dropped down beside him with his usual over enthusiastic grin.

Inui had the presence of mind to clamp a hand around his mouth before he could bring attention to where they were and dragged him off behind Oji's woodworking shed. Inui was very good at lying. He prided himself on his ability to misinform, which is why he was so tetchy right now. What on earth could he possibly use as an excuse? 'Oh, I wasn't spying on my kouhai and your senpai, I was merely out for a stroll and happened to see them conversing and thought that coming out from under the jungle gym would be a good laugh for all.' One it wasn't believable at all to anybody, and two Kentarou would have believed him and been all for it.

Which left the truth.

Inui hated the turth. It left him with a foul taste in his mouth, something like regurgitated crow.

Kentarou beat him to the punch anyway, so it didn't really matter anymore. But it was all a question of style really. He should've been able to come up with something just in case this happened. "Spying on Kaidoh and Saeki?"He grinned brightly.

Inui glared at him. "I do not spy." Then sighing in the face of that smile, "And yes."

"Why?"

Inui did not want to answer that question. Kentarou knew Inui didn't want to answer that question. Inui knew that Kentarou knew that he didn't want to answer that question. And Inui thought that Kentarou was probably well aware of all of this too. Nevertheless, the grin. It had a life of its own that grin. How dare it mock me. And then there were the eyes. The big innocent eyes. Like Inui believed that. They were just as bad as the smile really. "Why are you here?"

"Hmm?" Kentarou looked puzzled for a moment while Inui silently seethed. "Oh, Saeki said we could do something together after he'd talked to Kaidoh. He sounded pretty bemused actually." And then there was the look. The 'HA! I told you what you really wanted to know and that's the last thing you were expecting to happen!' Inui didn't know you could taste regurgitated crow before you were forced to eat it. It was pretty impressive.

Choosing not to say anything he peered back around the shed at a seriously red Kaidoh getting all the more so as Saeki tried to reassure him.

"

Momo felt very awkward approaching Tachibana after his conversation with Ann. He just didn't know what was he was going to do if she had told her brother that he had been asking after him. And, of course, being the person that she is she would leave out the whole Fuji aspect of the situation. Because there's nothing like a girl for turning an already difficult situation into one so ---ed up there'd be no hope of things ever returning to normal. Momo paused while he replayed the thouht again. And then again. And then resorted to shaking his head like a wet dog to see if anything was rattling out of place up there. Oh well, things could be worse. He could be replacing the dashes with words like "effed" and "sugar".

He idly wondered if Kamio knew morse code as he wandered onto the street courts yet again hoping to run into Tachibana. The Fudomine regulars were engaged in matches with each other as he tried to spy out if Tachibana was there. He finally found him overseeing a match between Ibu Shinji and Kamio Akira. And then he noticed Ann right next to him. He particularly noticed her noticing him. And the dashes and blurs of extreme violence in his head snapped into place as she smirked and tugged at her brother's sleeve to bring Momo to his attention.

"Momoshiro," he offered as a greeting as he walked over to him, his sister making several pointed gestures behind his back. There was the difference between Tezuka and Tachibana he decided. Tezuka was always a little stiff, or rather very stiff, even his anger was stiff. When Tezuka greeted Momo in the same manner, he was always wondering what he'd done wrong and seeing if he could pin it on someone else. Tachibana's was merely a way to say hello. It was even warm. It might be nice to have a captain that didn't descend from Pinocchio he decided.

"Tachibana, Tachibana's sister," Momo greeted with a smirk making her squawk in indignance. It was the same with younger siblings anywhere. Give them one wellknown sibling and they'd be known as someone's brother or sister by everyone else around them, and it would always get under their skin.

Tachibana smiled at him, "I think that's enough expletives for anyone Ann. Why don't you go watch over the matches." She left in a huff as both he and Momo took a seat. "What did she do to you?"

Momo tried for innocent and failed terribly. Passing the blame never worked out for him. "It's nothing important. I just thought it was time someone tweaked her nose out of the air." Tachibana didn't even try of the stern older brother method. He merely laughed when heard that.

"Did you come here for a match?"

Momo considered it. "Not really. Unless you're feeling up to it?"

Tachibana smiled lightly. "Are you challenging me Momoshiro?"

"Of course. I never back down from a match. Particularly not against a nationally ranked player." Momo gets sidetracked very easily. It's a fault of having an attention span the length of a serve when a tennis match is in the offing.

"Know many do you?" Tachibana teased making Momo blush at his own bravado. "We can play when one of the courts open up," he offered. "But only if you tell me why you're really here."

Momo also moved into conversations with negative tact value when faced with a match. "I was wondering if- Why did you bleach your hair?" The question had been niggling around at the back of his brain for a while now and sidetracked him.

Tachibana looked confused for a moment at Momo's sudden shift in the conversation but rallied nicely. "Someone asked me to do it for the Nationals. He wanted to see what it looked like in person. Apparently the photos my sister parades around with weren't enough for him."

The "he's" and "him's" clicked into place in Momo's head and he remembered what he was actually there for. "Who?"

"Me," was the sharp reply from in front of them. "Why are you here Momo?" Momo couldn't help but notice the suspicious, almost possessive aura coming off him and had his answer. Oh. Poor Tachibana. And here I was thinking he was always mad at me cuz he thought I was after Ann and I thought he was too. Apparently the bastard just didn't want me for an in-law. As if he could do better... a lot of dashes can be said in three little dots Momo realized.

He looked over at the court when he noticed that Shinji wasn't with him and saw him passed out on the pavement. "Well, if we move Shinji we can have that match Tachibana."

Kamio did not appreciate being ignored. "What about what you came here for?" Tachibana asked as they moved towards the courts. Kamio really didn't appreciate when it was his boyfriend ignoring him.

"

Ryoma looked down at his phone with a smirk when he saw Kaidoh's name pop up on caller I.D. "Hello, Kaidoh-senpai. So how was- one moment I think Momo's trying to beep in." Ignoring Kaidoh's comment to ignore the idiot and stop calling him senpai, Ryoma initiated threeway calling so they could all chat.

He listended with amusement as initially they both tried to talk over each other and then started fighting and then went back to talking over each other. It sounded like Kaidoh got the short-end of the stick on this one although Momo did lose spectacularly against Tachibana in a match that he felt was more important than the news that Tachibana was already involved. Apparently Saeki thought Kaidoh was trying to ask him out and when he explained that he was already seeing somebody and tried to comfort Kaidoh it was all his poor senpai could do not to throw himself off the nearest available birdge. Momo was starting to make fun of him when they both heard something unusual on the line and froze. It sounded muffled and strained as though someone were trying to contain something when peal after peal of laughter ripped out of Ryoma.

It was something neither of the other two had ever really heard out of the freshman. The occasional snigger, yes. Maybe even some quiet chuckling. But this was something else altogether and they both went crimson to their roots when heard it.

Wiping a tear out his eye, Ryoma finally rebounded and told them that everything was fine. That things had gone well with Kawamura-senpai and that everything could move forward as planned. A dark and ugly suspicion began to itch around the base of Kaidoh's spine. "You didn't already know about all of this did you Ryoma?" The sound of Momo suddenly listening intently caused static to crackle on the phone. "Because it comes to mind that you and Kentarou did spend that night before the end of your match together. And not even you two could have spent that entire night playing each other, after an hours long match, and still have enough energy left over to compete the next day."

"

A/N: One down and probably just one more to go. Here's hoping nothing happens in the meantime. Just out of curiousity I'd like to know how you'd prefer this story to end. So leave me a note if you have an opinion.