Author's Note: It is the evening before Seigaku's big showdown with Rikkai Dai, and everyone agrees that it's about time that Yuuta stops sulking and goes home to support his genius big brother. Kaneda's POV.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Prince of Tennis.
The Conspiracy – part 1
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(Why? Why me?)
He's standing in the middle of the hallway, actively engaged in a staring contest with a door, and just as expected, the door wins.
(No, seriously. Why me?)
Kaneda Ichirou heaves a tired sigh. But compelled by his own misguided pledge to help (and the positively evil glint in Mizuki-san's eyes promising serious repercussions should he chicken out), Kaneda half-heartedly slaps the palm of his hand against the hard wood a couple of times.
"…yeah?" grunts the room's inhabitant. "What?"
Kaneda swallows hard, then pushes the door open just enough so he can poke his head through the gap. "Hey!" he says brightly, in a tone he hopes sounds natural. "You busy?"
"Kaneda?" Yuuta looks surprised, but not overly annoyed.
Electing to interpret this as a good sign, Kaneda steps into the room, shutting the door behind him. He stops to take in the mess, which is impressive even by St. Rudolph standards. "Uh, if you're in the middle of something, I'll just come back later," he offers politely.
Yuuta leans back in his chair, both feet still comfortably propped up on his desk. "Does it look like I'm doing anything?" he deadpans in such a typically Yuuta-ish way that Kaneda nearly smiles.
But as it is, he sidesteps the spare tennis racquet partially buried under several pieces of discarded clothing, empty CD cases, old tennis magazines, water bottles and a random biology textbook. "So—" Kaneda almost trips over what looks too much like a small potted cactus to be anything else, though he wisely refrains from commenting on it, "—you're not packing up for summer vacation, then?"
Yuuta blinks. "Isn't it a bit early for that?" he says, reluctantly vacating his desk chair, which Kaneda immediately accepts, in favour of lounging on his unmade bed instead. "We still have another week and a half of school left, you know."
Kaneda surveys the devastation around them. "But your room…" He pauses. "I mean, it's a bit… isn't it?"
"What about it?" Yuuta props himself up on his elbow. "It's always like this. Pretty much."
(Okay, thinks Kaneda to himself. That would explain a few things.)
"So…" Yuuta regards him curiously. "What's up?"
"Not much," lies Kaneda uneasily, because on one hand, Yuuta's business is nobody's but his own, and Kaneda doesn't particularly approve of Mizuki-san's tendency towards invasive meddling. But on the other, Yuuta's periodic bouts of serious brooding have reached new, insane heights since the start of the National Tournament and that simply can't be healthy.
"You didn't come out with us today either," he says at length, determined to get the show on the road.
Yuuta's eyes narrow. "I had stuff to do," he replies, instantly on his guard. "I was busy."
"The whole day?" prods Kaneda gently, because Yuuta's clipped response suggests that maybe Mizuki-san wasn't so wrong about interfering after all. "Like how you were busy yesterday and the day before that?"
"What if I was?" snaps Yuuta, sounding unusually defensive. "I'm a busy person."
Kaneda shrugs, feeling a bit braver. "Either way, you missed out," he says, watching the other boy carefully.
Yuuta frowns and looks away. "Really."
"Yeah." Kaneda grins. Though 'missed out' was an understatement; today's matches had been amazing. "Rikkai Dai against Nagoya Seitoku and—"
"Seigaku against Shitenhouji, I know," finishes Yuuta for him, grudgingly. "Some first-years were talking about it at dinner."
Kaneda smiles inwardly. So this was the limit to Yuuta's self-imposed exile from all things tennis. "Shitenhouji pressed them hard, but Seigaku really were amazing."
Yuuta snorts. "Why are you telling me?" he mutters sourly. "I used to go to their school, remember."
Kaneda clearly senses an opening, and decides to go for it. Not only is he in way too deep to turn back now, but it's about time that the curtain fell on Yuuta's ridiculous one-man emo-drama. "Yeah, I know," he points out with a lot more bite than would normally be expected from him. "Everyone knows. It's not like you let any of us forget about it."
Yuuta sits up straight and looks totally shocked. "W-What's that supposed to mean?!"
"It's all you ever talk about," explains Kaneda calmly, savouring the feeling of being properly listened to for once. "When I beat my brother this, when I beat my brother that… I guess it's good for motivation, but don't you ever just want to play tennis for, you know, yourself?"
"You…!" Yuuta is more or less shaking with fury, but Kaneda doesn't back down. "You don't know anything! You have no idea what it's like!"
"Yeah, you're right!" replies Kaneda, working up some steam of his own. "I don't know."
Yuuta opens his mouth as if to say something, but Kaneda beats him to it:
"But so what if your big bro is Fuji Syusuke and a tennis genius – so what?! That doesn't make you less you! You're still you! It's as simple as that!"
Kaneda gives Yuuta a pointed look, and promptly deflates. Oh wow. He's really done it now. He didn't plan on saying all that; it just came out before he could stop himself. Yuuta was totally going to murder him and hide his body under all the junk on the floor.
But surprisingly, Yuuta doesn't.
Instead, his brow clears and he regards Kaneda with a strange, almost respectful look in his eyes.
(And frankly, that scares him a little.)
"Kaneda, you're a surprising guy," says Yuuta quietly. "I didn't think you had it in you."
Kaneda rubs his neck embarrassedly; that makes two of them. "Uh, well…"
"Thanks, though—" Yuuta fidgets with the hem of his shirt, "—I mean it."
"Anyway…" Kaneda racks his brains for something to bring the conversation back to safer grounds; a pissed off Yuuta, he could handle. An embarrassed Yuuta, not so much. "You really missed out on some good matches today."
Yuuta looks up. "Oh, yeah?"
Kaneda nods, relieved. "Nagoya Seitoku replaced its entire line-up with foreigners. I mean, the nerve of those people! Rikkai Dai pulled through in the end, though. That Kirihara really is a monster!" He shudders at the memory of Kirihara's crazy laughter. "But the Seigaku-Shitenhouji showdown was a nail-biter, too. With Fuji-san losing and—"
"He lost?"
"Yeah. 6-7 to Shitenhouji's captain. It was a hell of a match, though. He—" Kaneda stops. "Wait, you didn't know? Fuji-san came back from 0-5 with a new move, but even that wasn't enough."
Yuuta's expression is unreadable. "I can't believe that he actually… aniki never… I mean, aniki always wins."
"Not this time, he didn't." Kaneda regards his friend thoughtfully; if he didn't know better, he'd say Yuuta looked a little shocked. "Seems he took it pretty hard, too."
Yuuta puts on a brave smirk, but Kaneda can tell that he is badly shaken. "I didn't know you were so interested in my brother."
"I'm not," replies Kaneda truthfully, because obsessing over Fuji-san is Mizuki-san's department. "But he's your brother, so…" He trails off, then adds with a lopsided grin, "Besides, I figure it's better to root for Seigaku than Rikkai Dai. You know?"
"I guess."
Kaneda shakes his head inwardly. It would seem that Yuuta needs one more push. "Look…" he says, carefully weighing his words, because he'll only get one shot at this. "Maybe you should go home. Spend the weekend."
"What?" Yuuta looks up with a start. "Why?"
"Why not?" counters Kaneda easily. "You're just going to stay cooped up here anyway."
"…I suppose. Nee-chan did ask me to visit soon," admits Yuuta slowly and with noticeable reluctance.
Kaneda grins. "There you go."
Yuuta is silent for a while, then he announces, "I'm not doing this for him, you know."
Kaneda shrugs. "Didn't say you are," he says, because Mizuki-san said it's imperative that Yuuta believes that the visit is his own idea.
"Good." Yuuta gives him one of his trademark glares, and things almost return to normal until he mutters, "Aniki doesn't need me there to hold his hand."
"Yuuta-kun," replies Kaneda solemnly, "I couldn't imagine you holding anybody's hand."
Yuuta grimaces, then hurls a pillow at him. "Shut up!"
Kaneda dodges the pillow with ease.
"But Mizuki-san…" Yuuta trails off, looking uncertain. "Is it really okay?"
"Mizuki-san doesn't need to know." Kaneda gives his friend an encouraging smile. "I mean, the tennis season is over already and it's just for the weekend, anyway."
Yuuta regards him appreciatively. "Kaneda, I think I've underestimated you. You're a pretty sneaky bastard."
Kaneda smiles to himself as Yuuta starts stuffing random things into his overnight bag. "Oh, I don't know about that..."
