Hello anybody reading this!
Blufox- Hahaha... Hearts... Okay, moving on... Update time!
Dovaly- Mnn, I love them too. It makes me feel a little bit sad that I put them in such bad family situations. Then the feeling passes.
EyesLikeIce- I really wish you would have said which part was adorable, but please read on anyway!
Wistful-Dreamer- Then wait no longer.
KaL KeY- Tango! Wee!!! (You say I have to like you were worried I wouldn't. -Laughs.-)
Shimizu Miki- In a word, yes. I love cliffhangers. Also, it's time to test whether you know what Fuji is thinking or not. Enjoy.
AnimeFan06- Just to make sure this is clear, 'Only One' is what Atobe calls Jirou, like a pet name (Though not normally when other people are around). Since he doesn't say 'I love you', Jirou takes this to mean that. Now, please do read on and try to stand it!
DarkDemonCat-
SkyBlue147- For everything else, I'm glad you liked it, and as for Shinji and Kamio... -grins-... You have no idea.
KiriharaAkaya- You may be upset when I say this, but the scene in this chapter that takes place between Fuji and Atobe was originally going to be a Tango Pair scene... Just for kicks, but then I had to change things, because I decided against Sanada having wings, and doing it this way was better to further the plot! Sorry! Anyway, don't tell anyone, but I plan to slip in a little take-it-as-you-see-it (Implied) pairing of characters that I like seeing together but aren't together in the real story. (Like AtobeFuji in this chapter.)
Alaena Flame Dragonstar- Yes, Fuji... Haha... Any way, I was a little worried about the Tachibana scene, because I didn't want him to get too out of character... I'm glad you liked it then. (Or at least though it was interesting.)
Yoshikochan- Yeah, I love AtobeFuji as well... So I couldn't help myself... Even though I prefer TezuFuji.
Disclaimer- I do not own Prince of Tennis
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Kunimitsu watched as Fuji flapped his wings, rising up above the party, followed by Atobe, as a familiar song began to play. Fuji turned to him and winked before turning back to Atobe and began to dance, while in flight, to 'El Tango de Roxanne'.
It was something to see them tango in the air like that, Kunimitsu would readily admit. And, of course, Fuji looked incredibly hot, but he found himself grinding his teeth slightly. He was not going to give in, however, not yet.
Kunimitsu had no doubt that it was Fuji's plan to make him jealous all along. Fuji had always loved mind games, as Kunimitsu had learned not long after meeting the tensai. It was always frustrating when Fuji pulled stunts like this. When he decided to play god and manipulate people's thoughts and emotions. He was good at it too, was the problem.
He pondered for a moment how Fuji had managed to convince Atobe, through Jirou, to do something like this. Kunimitsu knew that if someone came up and asked him if they could dance with Fuji, he would have a very hard time being at all polite and not throwing a fist in their face. Which of course would be very bad, as that was not at all a Kunimitsu thing to do. Not that he would regret it.
Kunimitsu knew that to anyone other than Fuji, Atobe, Oishi, and possibly Inui he would look completely calm. To those people, who knew how to see past his mask better, he would probably seem to still calm, but they would know how he was actually fighting a burning jealousy that demanded he take action.
A glance in the direction of Jirou told him that the volleyist was reacting in much the same way he was. He clearly seemed to regret his choice to let Atobe and Fuji dance together. How could he not? With Fuji and Atobe looking so good up there, out of his reach. Jirou seemed to feel his eyes on him, and turned to Kunimitsu, his eyes sending a message, asking for him to do something. Seeing the helplessness in that expression moved something inside Kunimitsu. He knew how it felt to be helpless, had felt it way back then, when...
He shook his head to clear it, knowing that thinking back on that would do nothing for him now. What he needed to do now was help get that expression off of Jirou's face, and at the same time satisfy that burning jealousy in the pit of his stomach. He took a deep breath, to prepare himself, and took to the air.
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Atobe knew what Fuji was planning the moment he saw the tensai turn back to wink at Tezuka, but had no idea how the said Seigaku buchou would react. He knew that if someone, a rival no less, or even Tezuka, had been dancing with Jirou, his Only One, he would have stopped it immediately, chivalry and appearances cast aside for that moment. Then again, Jirou was not Fuji. Jirou didn't go out of his way to play mind games with him. Jirou was sweet, and though he teased some times, it was always an enjoyable torture, while Fuji was setting out to give Tezuka a small bit of pain, just to see how he would deal with it. It was sadistic and evil-minded, and it made Atobe smile a bit.
Atobe knew of course, that just as Fuji had a strong will, and would press Tezuka's buttons until he got a reaction, Tezuka's will was just as strong. There was a chance that Tezuka would not react at all, at least, not outwardly. He thought all of this over, and tried to make a prediction as he and Fuji continued to dance on air.
And then he saw Jirou.
Jirou's eyes, looking up at them with something akin to regret and anguish. It nearly broke him, and he felt a need to stop the dance immediately and make his Only One feel better. Before he could move, however, he saw Jirou avert his gaze, looking now at Tezuka with a pleading expression. Atobe then saw something flash in Tezuka's eyes, something he could not quite understand. He knew he had seen that expression before, but never from Tezuka and ho couldn't place exactly what it was. And then, suddenly, as he spun Fuji another time, he knew it.
The look was that of pity. Pity for one who had felt the same things the pitied one was feeling now. Atobe was at once intrigued and interested. Continuing in his tango with Fuji, now knowing that Tezuka would soon take action, and he could go and reassure Jirou that there was nothing to despair about. As he watched Tezuka spread his wings out, he wondered exactly what about this situation made such a connection exist between two very different people. He didn't have time to figure it out, and would have to ask Jirou exactly what he had felt in that moment if he wanted to know for sure.
As Tezuka came flying towards Fuji and Atobe himself, Atobe moved back at just the right moment as the other buchou swooped in and took Fuji's hands in his, continuing the tango perfectly from where they had left off. The man who had taught Atobe to tango would be weeping tears of joy to see that. Atobe watched them dance for just a moment. You couldn't help but stare at least a little when those two danced like they were now.
Tezuka, having let go of his self-control, was moving in ways Atobe hadn't thought he would ever see from one of his largest rivals. He was actually quite skilled, was what really surprised Atobe, and that combined with his avian grace in the air made for a captivating picture. Fuji, as well, seemed to almost improve before his eyes, and the tensai had been a talented dancer before this. He was radiating love for the boy he was dancing with, and seemed absolutely thrilled that Tezuka was being so unguarded. On top of all of that, Atobe would have bet his entire fortune that that smile on Fuji's face was one hundred percent genuine.
Satisfied that he had seen enough, he turned away from the two and flew down to his own love.
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"Where's your sense of adventure?" Niou asked, nipping at Yagyuu's neck. The gentleman refused to really react.
"Being involved with you is always an adventure, Masaharu," he said, his voice calm and his face collected. Just to see if he could get the other to react, Niou brushed his hand against a very sensitive part of Yagyuu's body, and smirked as his double's partner tried to hold back a moan.
"Are you going to tell me that you're not enjoying this?" Niou purred in his ear, licking that same ear afterwards.
"You already know the answer to that," Yagyuu whispered. Niou grinned, knowing that the other could resist all he wanted, but that his body couldn't lie about it. The trickster was about to continue his devious activities, when Bunta rounded the corner.
If the self-proclaimed tensai was surprised or bothered by seeing them there like that, Yagyuu pressed against the wall of an empty hallway, Niou pinning him there, he didn't show it. The bubble-gum chewing dog-boy looked Niou right in the eyes.
"Does Aka-chan seem distracted to you?" Niou rolled his eyes, wondering why it had to be him that Bunta bothered about these things. Then again, Bunta looked like he might need some reassurance right now, and they were friends, best friends.
"Go ahead and talk to him," Yagyuu whispered in his ear, giving Niou a small, kind smile before heading down the hall and into the main room, giving Bunta a small smile as well, but one that was different then the one he gave Niou. Niou sighed and slid down against the wall. He pat the space beside him and Bunta moved to follow.
"Does he?"
"Seem distracted?" Niou pondered, then shrugged. "No more than usual."
"He keeps staring off into space, and his eyes kinda glaze over," Bunta said, calm for perhaps the third time since the Trivial Pulse.
"You're worried about the brat." When Niou said like that that, it was a statement, not a question.
"No... Maybe..."
Niou smiled, in a way that it was half a smirk and half a genuine smile. "It's not a secret that you like him. You could at least trust your best friend enough to tell him."
"Alright, I like Akaya," Bunta said, a slight blush coming across his face. "So what?"
"So nothing," Niou shrugged again. "Tell him."
"I can't just tell him something like that!" Bunta said, looking at Niou as if he had just told him to pee in holy water.
"Why should it matter?" Niou countered, "If you like him, you should tell him. If you're worried about him rejecting you, then you're being selfish. Who knows, maybe this'll turn out as a good thing. Like Sanada and Buchou, or me and Yagyuu."
"I'm not worried that we're both guys!" Bunta insisted. "It's just... He's..."
Niou at this point laughed out loud. "You're concerned about him being our kohai? You're concerned about going out with him because he's a year younger then us?!" Bunta tried to look dignified as his best friend laughed his head off next to him. He was embarrassed, but not really hurt.
"Well... Yes," Bunta admitted. "I mean... That's part of it. He's young, he may not understand. I mean, if a senpai tried to say something like that to me last year, I would have probably been scared off. Or perhaps to frightened to move, and then he would have been able to do anything he wanted to me."
There was a pause, and then Niou finally asked, "Would you ever hurt him?" Bunta looked like he was pondering this.
"I wouldn't try to, but if I had him alone, I might want to... You know..." He looked ashamed at this.
"That wasn't the question," Niou stated, not backing down or giving Bunta a way out. "Would you hurt him?"
"...No," Bunta said, then repeated, sounding more confident, "No, I would never hurt him."
"Good. I didn't think you would," Niou looked almost thoughtful, though it was a bit of a stretch to say that, "I don't think he thinks you would either. He trusts you."
"He trusts all of his senpais," Bunta laughed airily. "...Especially Yanagi, it would seem..."
Was that a hint of jealousy Niou heard there? And the poor sap had no idea that while the eighth grader did respect Yanagi, it was Bunta himself that he was always staring at. For a supposed tensai, he was awfully dense not to have noticed that. Niou fought the urge to chuckle again, thinking that Kirihara probably thought things very similar to that.
"... Bunta," Niou said, smirking and looking straight forward, "Wanna make a bet?"
"A bet?" Bunta shook his head with a confused smile. "What kind of bet?"
"I bet that I can get the bratling to confess that he likes you, and not Yanagi before the end of this party."
"What are the stakes?" Bunta smiled. The truth was, that no matter how it turned out, he would win in someway.
"If I win, I want you to give me all of your sugar rations for next week."
Bunta went to object, but then closed his mouth as he thought of what else Niou winning the bet would mean for him. "...Alright. And if you lose?"
"... If I lose, which I won't..." Niou sighed, seeing no other alternative. There was no way that the kid didn't like Bunta, but on the very slim chance that all of those long looks and stares were just some type of admiration, and Niou was wrong, then... "If I'm wrong, and he doesn't care for you that way... Then I'll serve as your rebound."
Bunta seemed to be in shock, and was staring at his best friend with his mouth open. "N-no... Masaharu, I can't let you do that. I can't. You have Yagyuu, and if you do something like that, he'll... He'll never forgive you..."
"Who cares if he would leave me?" Niou asked. He knew it was a bold faced lie, and Bunta saw right through it.
"You would. You love him," Bunta looked at his friend with compassionate eyes. "You know you do."
"... Then you know how confident I must be," Niou said, and smirked at his best friend, who smiled back, if it was after a moment or so.