by MorphailEffect
Again, his heart started to pound inside his chest. Again, Oshitari forced himself to be numb. He was going to a new school, meeting new peers, getting along with new people in the neighborhood. Like he had had to do for the last sixteen years of his life. It was nothing new, so he should not be nervous.
There was, however, one major difference...
He was going to a new high school with Tezuka Kunimitsu. Whom he had not forewarned. Whom he had come across by accident while he and Mukahi Gakuto were away on vacation. Whom he had kissed. For what seemed like hours.
He had come back to Mukahi late at night, needing to do something with the tension that had built up inside him. While in bed with Mukahi, he found to his relief that he hadn't taken to thinking about Tezuka Kunimitsu in Mukahi's place. Not yet.
He wondered if they were going to be classmates. Should that happen, he wondered how Tezuka would react. Would he pretend not to know Oshitari? Would he look at Oshitari with utter loathing? Would he smile?
He held on to that last thought, the one that was least possible, to give him strength.
The mirror reflected a confident young man with long dark hair and a practiced smirk no one could resist. The young man was wearing a school uniform he had never worn before. The insignia felt strange. They always did, for the first few days.
One last deep breath, then Oshitari was ready.
******************************
Vice Captain Tezuka Kunimitsu was one of the first people inside the classroom, on the first day of class. He was reading a book in German -- or at least that was what he seemed to be doing.
His mind was still lost in a certain week-long countryside vacation. Summer had just ended and the memories were still fresh in his head. A leisurely cigarette. An unplanned kiss. A hand on his. Lying back against the cool damp wood of the lonely, hidden bench. Being caressed in places that instantly came alive...
He caught himself, and shook his head out of the clouds. It was dead certain he would never see Oshitari again. And it was useless to let himself get distracted.
He removed his spectacles for a moment and rubbed his eyes. As he did, a shadow fell across his desk. Surprised but expressionless, Tezuka looked up.
The shock of seeing who it was made him sit up straight. The other person said nothing, only kept that killer smile on his face. Without so much as a by-your-leave, he sat on the edge of Tezuka's desk.
Tezuka frowned when it registered that the newcomer was wearing his high school's uniform.
"I know, I should've told you," was the flippant greeting, presently, "but it doesn't matter now, right?"
"You've moved here?" Tezuka asked.
"Next town," came the reply. "I'll see my family on weekends. I have an apartment. I'm living alone."
"...So am I."
Tezuka was immediately suspicious. He'd mentioned the name of his high school to Oshitari during the summer break, but Oshitari had never even hinted that he was planning to transfer there. Oshitari only mentioned that his family was moving again, so he would have to change high schools, but he never said where his family was moving to.
But then...what was the purpose of surprising Tezuka? Why had he needed to withhold the information?
Still, Tezuka managed to quell his doubts. If Oshitari's family were in the area, it was logical that Oshitari would choose to attend Tezuka's high school: it was the best high school in the region, in terms of athletics instruction. Tezuka himself had insisted on attending it, even if it would take him far from home -- far from his elementary school, his middle school Seishun Gakuen, and everything familiar.
Oshitari would also be living alone, of course. Promiscuous as he was, he needed the privacy.
"I'm applying for the tennis club, too," Oshitari mentioned, keeping his voice low.
It would have been so easy for Tezuka to bring his hand up for a leisurely encounter with that thigh on his desk. But it was too easy. And risky, besides. The door was wide open, and their classmates were due to come in.
"You'll go easy on me during the application, right, Mr. Vice Captain?"
Tezuka narrowed his eyes. "I wouldn't count on it."
Oshitari let out a quiet chuckle. He took Tezuka's spectacles from his hand, and gently replaced them on his face. He tipped Tezuka's chin up and smirked into the brown eyes behind the glass.
"Mada ka'aii ya na..." [1]
******************************
Mukahi held his head up, as always, as he entered the classroom on the first day of class. "Yaa," he said by way of greeting to the entire room. Then he threw his bag on the floor and plopped into his chair, sighed and looked uninterested. It was all routine.
As if it was any other day at school and eventually, Oshitari would be somewhere in the room.
The room itself had become a vacuum that sucked out all the self-assurance Mukahi had force-fed himself the night before. Yuushi isn't here anymore. But I don't need him to be. I'll be okay. It sounded like so much bull all of a sudden; it was going to be him without Yuushi from now on.
After so long of being a power team. So long of being together.
They'd said a long goodbye. Mukahi was even the one who said Oshitari was being melodramatic -- the car was waiting, he was wasting gas. Hurry up and leave! Oshitari had hugged him in front of his family before boarding the car and being borne off to somewhere unreachable...
In the end, it had been the goodbye Mukahi had wanted.
...
So why this emptiness...
The person sitting in front of him turned. Slung one arm over the backrest of his chair. It was Shishido Ryou. His sudden movements broke Mukahi's reverie, so that his eyes focused, resumed their typical "bored" countenance.
"Usu, Gakuto," Shishido chortled. He seemed unusually upbeat, as if he was up to no good. "Is it true what I heard from Hiyoshi? Yuushi's transferred to another high school?"
"Mm...yeah. His family had to move."
"And it didn't occur to either of you two to tell anybody else...?" Shishido accused.
"It wasn't a sure thing until before summer break," Mukahi shrugged.
Shishido snorted, looked disappointed. "Damn. You sure seem okay with it..."
"What? Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"
At this, Shishido regained footing and grinned. "You won't miss him, or anything?"
Now Shishido was among the very few people from Mukahi's old middle school who knew about Oshitari and Mukahi's relationship. The only other person, as far as Mukahi could tell, was Atobe Keigo, their tennis club captain, who had been surprisingly trustworthy -- even indulgent. Mukahi suspected they amused Atobe, what with the man's twisted sense of fun.
Shishido, on the other hand, was a pain. He only found out on their freshman year in high school, and he harped on it whenever he had the chance. He liked teasing Mukahi and Oshitari, plying them with lewd suggestions, even if it was against his nature to pick on people. It only showed that Shishido was comfortable enough with them to not hold back.
Mukahi grunted. Shishido was one to judge. His eyes went all wide, then he blushed like crazy when he was informed that Ohtori was entering their high school that year as a freshman. If what he and "Ohtori-chan," as Mukahi liked to call him in Shishido's face, were not yet like what Mukahi and Oshitari used to be, they were at least getting there, in small and shaky steps.
"What, me, miss that idiot? Don't you think I'd be sick of him by now?"
Shishido scratched his chin comically. "Hmm...wonder what kind of trouble he'd be causing in that school..."
"Who knows," Mukahi sniffed. "He'll probably be off chasing every single thing in a skirt." He shot Shishido a mischievous look. "Did you know that was why his parents stuck him in an all-boys' middle school in the first place?"
"Haa, sou?" This distracted him. It looked like he really didn't know. "Poor guy. No wonder he always looked so bored in Hyoutei."
Mukahi chuckled. "Yeah, his first coed school in four years...the moron's got to be ecstatic."
"So you're really okay about this, huh?"
Every now and then, an ounce of genuine concern would slip through Shishido's defenses. Mukahi didn't know if this was one of those times.
"Yes I am. Stop asking me already!"
Shishido laughed, raised his hands in surrender. He turned back and settled in his seat. The first-period teacher had poked his head into the room.
"Besides," Mukahi said softly as he stood with the rest of the class to greet the teacher, "it's not like I'll never see him again..."
******************************
"Those girls are staring at you."
Tezuka looked over to the place Oshitari was pointing to by the incline of his head. There were indeed a bunch of high school girls clumped together, giggling over something and sneaking glances at the two young men conspiring in the shade. Freshmen, perhaps. Tezuka had been told before that people stared at him, but never paid it any attention.
He didn't pay the girls any attention now. "I don't care," he replied flatly.
Oshitari noticed a lot of things. Maybe he was naturally perceptive...or maybe it was because he kept looking back over his shoulder. As if expecting something to come bounding at him from the shadows.
Tezuka didn't bother speculating. Oshitari had his problems. They were his, alone, to deal with.
"Saa," Oshitari said as he hitched his schoolbag higher up his shoulder. "iko ka." [2]
Tezuka said nothing, simply walked off. As he followed Tezuka out of school grounds, Oshitari threw the girls a wink, which earned him a unified shriek of gratitude.
As they walked, Tezuka debated with himself over the logic of hanging out with Oshitari Yuushi to the extent that they even left school at the end of the day together. It wasn't practical, as they went in different directions to get home... but it came to him naturally.
He decided that Oshitari's was the kind of presence you couldn't turn away, once it had latched itself on you. A natural doubles partner, he noted grimly. Though he had never tried playing doubles with Oshitari, he had seen him play, and knew his potential for support.
In a way Oshitari reminded him of Oishi: he provided a feeling of stability and steadiness. Some people were born to watch other people's backs.
Also, having Oshitari around was...comforting. Tezuka didn't want to acknowledge it, but Oshitari generated in him an emotion he thought he had lost a long time ago.
If he was unable to control this emotion, it would handicap him. He knew his feelings better than anyone.
"Boring day," Oshitari remarked. "I'm in no mood to cook. Want to go grab a bite before going home?"
First day of classes, and this insolent guy -- who was applying for the tennis club, by the way, and as such should owe Tezuka some respect -- was already asking him out.
"...Sure," came the natural answer.
******************************
Mukahi winced as he sat down at their cafeteria table. He should have expected that Ohtori's greeting would be "Where's Oshitari-sempai?"
The angelic high school freshman meant no harm by asking, of course. But Mukahi couldn't help but be a little miffed. It was the end of the day, and he had received more inquiries on Oshitari's whereabouts than he would care to count. Even the teachers were asking him where Oshitari was. How tiring, for a first day of school.
"Transferred." Shishido answered, courteous enough to spare Mukahi from repeating himself. Shishido had made it to the cafeteria earlier than Mukahi. Overeager, perhaps...? Mukahi smirked privately.
"Sou?" Ohtori exclaimed. "Where to?"
"Hmm. I forgot to ask you that, Gakuto. What school?"
Mukahi gave the name, and the prefecture.
Ohtori blinked. "Eh? Isn't that the school Tezuka Kunimitsu goes to?"
The name struck Mukahi like a blow to the gut. Everyone else was speaking, but he had fallen still.
"Wah?! Maji?! [3]" Shishido cried. "I just remember Atobe mentioning that school before...something like if he didn't get accepted at that overseas scholarship, he was enrolling there. That school has the best tennis coach, doesn't it?"
"Sports coaches in general, sempai," Ohtori gently corrected. "Which was why Seigaku's Tezuka Kunimitsu enrolled there, I heard. Even if it's so far from his home..."
Mukahi kept his hands clutched on his knees, under the table. He kept his eyes down so his two companions wouldn't see the mess of things inside his head. He wanted to shout. He wanted to hit something.
"I heard he's living alone, too," Ohtori continued, sprightly as ever. "And that he's Vice Captain of the tennis club, only in his second year! Their tennis club is tough on its members...I wonder what would happen if Atobe-sempai didn't take that overseas scholarship..."
Shishido planted his chin in his hand. "Besides that," he drawled, "Yuushi is enough of a challenge. I wonder what would happen if he entered the tennis club and tried for the regulars, eh...would the famous vice-president be unseated?"
Ohtori chuckled gaily. "Aa. Knowing Oshitari-sempai, there's a good chance of that..."
Mukahi stood with such suddenness that Ohtori sat up in surprise.
"Mu -- mukahi-sempai?"
"I," he began ominously, face down and hidden by shoulder-length red hair, "have better things to do than sit around."
"Mukahi-sempai!" Ohtori cried as Mukahi began gathering his things. "Please wait! Was it something I said? I'm really sorry..."
"Naa, let him go, Choutarou," Shishido said sharply, as Mukahi stalked off. "He hasn't been himself without Yuushi."
You're pushing it, Shishido, Mukahi wanted to say through his teeth. Instead he opted to leave without a formal goodbye. Ohtori and Shishido looked after him with curious, concerned stares. But he didn't give a damn just then.
(to be continued)
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1 - "Still cute, aren't you..."
2 - "Saa, iko ka?" = "Well, shall we go?" in Kansaiben
3 - "For real?!" In question form, though the word "maji" means "impossible," literally.