A Lesson in Sleeping Late
by Kira

===

There was nothing particularly wrong with Momoshiro's bed. As far as beds were concerned, it was a very nice bed, complete with two pillows, sheets and comforter, and even an extra blanket folded up at its foot for easy access on chilly winter nights. It was comfortable, lumpy where it was supposed to be lumpy, and firm where it was supposed to be firm. All in all, he had no complaints. It was a good bed.

But there was something different about Atobe's bed.

It was enormous -- Momo had once surmised at least five people could sleep comfortably there, to which Atobe had raised an eyebrow and asked when, exactly, would five people be sleeping in his bed. There were six pillows in total, and why anyone really needed that many, Momo had no idea, but he was not complaining as each pillow was stuffed with feathers and ridiculously comfortable. The mattress was stuffed to the brim, as well, and instead of lying on the bed, one simply sunk into its vastness. It was better than a good bed, it was a great bed, and Momo figured that was why he found himself so often lost in its numerous folds.

He also figured that was why he often found himself waking up late the mornings he spent over at the Atobe household. It was too comfortable of a bed to rise early from -- how Atobe was able to do it every morning was beyond him. But whatever it was that woke the Hyotei captain, Momo was grateful for it, or there would have been several mornings he simply never would have shown up to practice. Without Atobe to shake him awake, he would have simply be lost in the warm, comfy bed, and slept well into the afternoon.

The problem lied in the fact that Atobe had overslept as well. While fumbling about for the snooze button on his alarm clock, he seemed to have missed the button entirely, swiped the clock from its place on the in-table, and down it crashed to the ground, where Atobe promptly forgot about it as sleep overtook him. And Momo, who woke for nothing short of the apocalypse, simply continued to snore away.

It was at sometime when he should have been pedaling his bike back to Seishun Gakuen when he woke up, bleary-eyed and yawning, and stretching his arms out above his head. Sleep was very, very good in a bed like Atobe's. Good enough that he simply forgot about everything else in the world. It would have been so nice to pretend it was Sunday and that he could sleep another few hours...

Except it wasn't Sunday, it was Friday, and he had to go to morning practice.

Sitting up, Momo glanced over and blinked. Atobe was still asleep. That... never happened. Not unless it was a day off from school; the Hyotei captain was never late. He never slept in, for that matter. Maybe, for once in his life, Momo had woken up early.

"Oi, Atobe." He nudged the other boy. "Wake up."

"What." It was more of a growl than it was a question. Atobe wrapped his arms more firmly around the pillow he was... cuddling? Okay, maybe cuddling was not exactly the right word... if only because if he said it was cuddling, Atobe would have promptly kicked him out of the bed, declaring Atobe Keigo-sama did not cuddle. (Except Momo knew for a fact that he cuddled, having been the object of his affection at one point or another -- but Atobe was happy to have his delusions.)

"What time is it?"

"There's a clock."

Momo looked past him to the in table. The lamp was still there, but... "It's not there."

"Clocks don't get up and walk, Momoshiro."

Momo, not being in the slightest a very nice person when he wanted to be, shoved Atobe hard enough to dislodge him from his comfy nest in the blankets. "No clock," he repeated pointedly, and growling, running a hand through his mussed hair, Atobe sat up.

And blinked. "Oh. No clock." He glanced around, sleep-induced stupor not helping his brain function too terribly well, until finally looking down to the floor. Leaning over, he picked up the clock and set it back down where it belonged.

And so blinked again.

"You're late."

"Huh?"

Atobe pointed to the clock before snuggling deeper into the blankets. "You should have left thirty minutes ago." Atobe had the immense pleasure of being only a block from his school, whereas Momo had a way to go before he reached Seishun. Such was the trade off of sleeping in the warm, comfy, feather down bed.

"Oh crap."

Momo fell from the bed with a rather undignified thump. He had barely ten minutes to reach school before Oishi-senpai realized he was late.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap!"

Where the hell were his clothes? No time to look for them -- he grabbed the closest thing that resembled his tennis jersey and stumbled about the room, yanking on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt over his head as he did. Atobe lifted a hand and waved slightly.

"Have fun."

"Bite me," Momo snapped, and grabbing his jacket, raced out the door.

--

Ten minutes late. Ten minutes, ten laps. Easy enough.

"Momo--" Oishi began.

"I know, I know. I'm late." He grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I overslept."

"It's not that--"

"Eh?" Momo blinked. "Then what is it?"

"Um."

Oishi did not seem to know exactly what to say. Nor did Inui, for that matter, who stood with his pencil posed over his notebook, one eyebrow raised slightly. Beside him, Kaidou was frowning, and not far from him, Fuji and Taka-san were exchanging glances. Ryoma stood with his racket resting against his shoulder, mouth slightly open in preparation to say something... and yet nothing come.

It was fortunate for all of them that Eiji possessed absolutely no tact.

"Momo's wearing a Hyotei jersey?!"

Hyotei jersey...?

Oh crap.

He hadn't been looking at what he was grabbing from the floor. Granted, the clothing had been somewhat... scattered after... well, Momo was too embarrassed to think back on what exactly had caused their clothes to be splattered from one end of the room to another. The more important matter at hand was that somehow, stumbling around and trying to gather up his clothing, he had left his regular jacket behind and instead taken Atobe's.

How was he going to explain this one?

"I... erh... I mean..."

"Momoshiro."

Several heads snapped up at the voice. Momo heard the distinct sound of the lead tip of Inui's pencil breaking as he pressed too hard against the notebook, followed then by Kaidou's racket dropping rather clumsily to the court.

What the hell was Atobe Keigo doing at Seishun Gakuen?

The Hyotei captain smirked and held something out. "You left this in my room."

Eiji opened his mouth wide, preparing to let out would no doubt be a blood curdling shriek... when to the relief of everyone present, Oishi leapt forward and slapped a hand over his lips.

Momo was almost positive that if his face turned any more red, it would explode. Head ducked low, he walked to Atobe -- or more like dragged his feet over to him -- and snatched his regulars jacket from his extended hand. Atobe's smirk widened.

"I suppose this means no more sex on school nights?"

"No," Momo growled. "Definitely no more sex on school nights." He shoved the Hyotei regulars jacket at Atobe, yanked on his own, and walked away with all the dignity of a ruffled cat.

He was never -- ever -- going to live this down.