Aishuu Offers:

Dross

mbsilvana@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: Konomi-sensei, manga-ka!

Notes: Eiji muse has run away with me, so this looks like it might become a bit longer than I anticipated. O/K and some T/F. 

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Part Four

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He woke gradually, hearing the sounds of someone moving around quietly. Oishi had a horrible taste in his mouth, and his fuzzy mind realized he had forgotten to brush his teeth before going to bed before he recognized that he wasn't in his own bed.

The thought sent him flying upright, to his feet, but he was off-balance and the blankets tangled around his legs and he landed in a less-than-graceful pile on the floor. The pain jogged his memory enough for him to recall the previous night - reunion, agreeing to stay, Kikumaru...

...who appeared from the bathroom, wearing one of the robes the hotel provided and was still wet from the shower. Damp tendrils, looking like splotches of blood, curled against his pale cheeks as he looked down at Oishi, canting his head slightly. "Rise and shine?" he asked with a bit of amusement after it became clear that Oishi was all in one piece.

"I'll rise but I won't shine," Oishi muttered back a bit grumpily. He'd learned to sleep some weird hours while on rotations, but he still begrudged getting up.

"Inui will be by in fifteen minutes with some coffee for you," Kikumaru informed him. "Will that help?"

"How-"

"He texted me. He said that you'd be impossible until you had caffeine. Go back to bed and just relax, ne?" Kikumaru's grin was playful as his gentle hands helped Oishi back onto the bed. He hummed lightly as he headed back to the bathroom, and Oishi listened to him as he continued to move around.

It was strange, listening to someone else's morning routine after spending so long alone. He'd had a roommate while an undergraduate, but as soon as he'd become a med student, he'd moved into his own place, finding that he needed the space. He found having another person around 24-7 intrusive.

Kikumaru's presence, though, wasn't bothering him. The sound of water running as Kikumaru brushed his teeth and his rather quiet fumbling was soothing. They'd spent a lot of time together when they were younger at the each other's houses, and listening to Kikumaru was taking him back to those days, because the rhythm was familiar.

The song Kikumaru was humming was pleasant, and Kikumaru's voice relaxed Oishi in a way he hadn't been in ages. Stress was a daily part of his life, especially with his chosen vocation, and he knew that he had years of tension built up. But Kikumaru seemed to melt that away, his mere presence a soothing balm.

He remembered it being like that, back in high school...

Oishi probably fell back to sleep, because the next thing he knew, the tantalizing aroma of coffee was tickling his nose, and Inui was standing at the foot of the bed, holding two cups just out of reach.

He almost growled.

Inui was dressed casually, wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt emblazoned with some weird mathematical formula and jeans. The grin on his face was pure evil, and Oishi wondered if the coffee had been doctored with some kind of "special Inui variation." He wasn't sure if he cared - as long as it was caffeine...

Inui smiled down at him, and Oishi actually groaned out loud. "What is it, Inui?" he asked.

"Coffee, black... if you get up," Inui said, dangling one of the cups in Oishi's face. "I believe that's how you take it?"

"My first cup, yes..." he said, pushing the blankets back a bit groggily. His brain still wasn't in full gear yet, but the bitter taste of sheer black coffee jolted him awake. The coffee was probably some of the strongest he'd ever tasted, and he took a second, more cautious sip, looking at Inui for an explanation.

"Inui's Special Coffee," he said. "Guaranteed to wake a dead man."

"Where was this when I was studying for my boards?" Oishi asked appreciatively.

Inui's laugh was low. "Se-cr-et."

Oishi savored the warmth of the cup in his hands, and merely smiled. "How long did this take to perfect?"

"I've been experimenting with it since senior year in high school, but it wasn't until two years ago that it was perfected," Inui said. "I had to bring my own supplies to make it in my room."

Oishi's thinking processes had been jump-started by the caffeine jolt. "Is this in any way related to your juice experiments?"

"Those were its predecessors. I had to give those up, sadly, to work on this..."

"I think it's a sacrifice the world can live with." Oishi was being diplomatic; the sure knowledge that there were no more Inui Juices in existence was a wonderful thing. Occasionally he'd have flashbacks to drinking one of them, and the twitches the memories causes had kept him from becoming a surgeon. Inui had always claimed that there were no lasting effects to drinking them - Oishi thought the psychological trauma was more than enough.

"Perhaps," Inui agreed. He took a drink out of the cup he held, and glanced at his watch. "We've got fifteen minutes."

"Huh?" Oishi wasn't aware of any plans.

"I'm going to take you back to your apartment so you can get what you need."

"I can take the subway-" Oishi began to protest, realizing that Inui was maneuvering him in some grand master scheme.

"Go with Inui," Kikumaru said as he emerged from the bathroom, dressed in jeans and a bright violet button-down shirt that contrasted his hair. "You have to see his car."

Inui smiled a bit. "It's functional."

"It's a IDodge Viper Coupe,/I" Kikumaru added, rolling the words slowly as though savoring the taste of them. "You've got to go, Oishi."

Oishi didn't know anything about cars, but Kikumaru sounded impressed. "Is that good?"

Kikumaru groaned, putting his head in his hands. "A 2000 Steel gray Dodge Viper Coupe, Connolly leather interior..." he began. "450 horse power engine..."

"I had it imported," Inui said a bit smugly. "It's a very nice vehicle. If you're good, I'll even let you play with the radio. Go freshen up a bit, and we can get going so we can be back in time for lunch..."

Oishi found himself obeying, since he did feel a bit disgusting, wearing the same clothes he had been the night before. He washed his face and straightened himself as best he could before returning to the room, finding Kikumaru sitting on the floor and watching the weather channel and Inui messing with his lap top at the small table in the corner.

"When are we leaving?" Oishi asked, grabbing the cup he had set aside. The coffee was still warm, and there was no way he was letting it go to waste.

"I'm going to take you as soon as I finish checking my stocks - give me five minutes." Inui tapped something out.

"Looks like it's going to be a nice day! Maybe we can go to Seigaku and check out the courts!" Kikumaru said happily, bouncing to his feet to manually switch the TV off.

"That would be fun. I'll show you my apartment while we're there," he told Kikumaru.

"Maybe some other time. I'm not going," said Kikumaru, looking out of his eyes sideways as he plopped down on his bed, making himself comfortable. "I'll meet you for lunch, okay?"

"Oh," was all Oishi could think to say, hoping that his face wasn't displaying the stab of disappointment he was feeling. He'd been looking forward to talking to Kikumaru, and really seeing what he'd been up to the past few years. In the daylight, he realized that he really didn't know anything about his former doubles' partner life - and he wanted to.

Kikumaru's hand went behind his head the way it did whenever he was feeling a bit awkward. "Well, I'm going to be meeting Fuji shortly. I figured I should apologize as soon as possible. He's always forgiven me before," he said. He still wasn't meeting Oishi's eyes.

"You mean you've done this before?" Oishi asked in horror.

"No, no! I mean whenever I do something stupid, he forgives me! He's a good friend, really!" Kikumaru said hurriedly.

Inui, standing nearby, gave Kikumaru a look. "There is a 17 percent chance you went too far this time - combined with his current situation, the chance goes up to 29 percent that he won't be in a forgiving mood."

Kikumaru actually stuck his tongue out at Inui. "You still can't get data on Fuji. He'll forgive me."

Inui looked a bit disgruntled about that point. "Fuji is Fuji," he muttered, barely loud enough to be heard.

"Um, are you sure you don't want one of us to go?" Oishi asked nervously. He wasn't sure it was such a good idea for Kikumaru to be alone with the tensai, especially considering how venomous he had been the night before.

"It's fine," Kikumaru said, rolling his eyes. "Still such a mother, Oishi. Fuji and I get along, really we do. It's nice that you're worried, but I can take care of myself. Okay?"

Meeting the purple eyes in a face that seemed to be too old, Oishi nodded reluctantly. IHe's right,/I he told himself. IHe's not the same kid who used to beg to borrow your homework because he forgot to do his./I "I'm sorry. I'm just so used to thinking of you as the kid who was always forgetting something..."

Kikumaru's smile wasn't offended, though maybe a bit sad. "I miss that kid - but I'm not him anymore. You and Inui should get going if you're going to make it back on time."

*

Oishi didn't know anything about cars, but he did have to admit Inui's was impressive. It was a beautiful machine, and every time Inui shifted as he carefully navigated the streets, Oishi could feel the engine respond, the carefully reigned in power almost complaining that it wasn't getting to do enough.

The car was really begging to be taken out somewhere where it could be let loose, Oishi thought. It was simply too magnificent to be used as a commuter machine. The looks they were attracting seemed to second that.

Owning a car in Tokyo was expensive, and owning one like this had a cost a fortune. Inui had to be doing really well, Oishi recognized with a bit of reluctant admiration. He didn't like status symbols, but this one was nice...

Inui, though, seemed oblivious to how much he had impressed his friend, keeping his eyes on the road. Oishi's apartment was quite a ways away, which gave them plenty of time to sit and... be silent.

Oishi had never been good at small talk, finding himself adept at the "open mouth, insert foot" style of communication and Inui didn't seem inclined to begin a conversation. It was frustrating, since Oishi was still feeling off-balance from seeing people he'd once known so well changed into creatures that seemed to be caricatures of their former selves. Personalities had deepened, shifted, changed...

And he felt confused. He wanted to know them again... perhaps it was nostalgia, but he wanted to know who they were and what had Ihappened/I.

"We grew up," Inui said out of nowhere.

"Huh?"

"You were dwelling on what had happened to everyone - it's quite simple. Everyone grew up. Ten years of life experience alters even those we thought would never change," Inui said. "Some of us changed more than others - the core of the personality is still there, really, but we either bend, or we break."

Oishi thought of Tezuka and Fuji. "I wasn't been expecting it," he admitted. "Not Tezuka and Fuji, at least. I never thought Fuji would be so nasty... I mean, there were signs of it before, but you always knew that he would never hurt a friend."

"They're not friends."

Oishi hadn't wanted to admit that possibility. "Why?"

"There's an underlying cause there," Inui said. "Bitterness, and we're looking at the outside of a relationship that didn't work."

"Relationship?" Oishi asked, feeling himself go pale. He had never even considered....

"I'm not sure if it was a relationship. Neither of them are the particularly open type," Inui said, and he shifted his eyes off the road briefly to look at Oishi's shocked expression. "They lived together while Tezuka was in law school, and Fuji was going to med school. Fuji dated a few people at the time, so I'm not sure if they did get involved, but the pattern of their behavior now and the abruptness Fuji moved out in the middle of his third year leads me to believe that was indeed the case."

Oishi tried to digest the fact that Fuji and Tezuka might have been lovers. "I... it's hard to picture..." he said, since he had a hard time seeing Tezuka being romantic with anyone.

"I can't be sure," Inui said, and he sounded a bit bitter. "Whenever Fuji is involved, any data I collect is as good as useless."

"So he and Tezuka have been fighting for... two years?"

"Close to that - at least according to what I've been able to glean from Kikumaru's and Fuji's occasional e-mails. Fuji isn't the forgiving type, and whatever happened had to be quite ugly for Fuji to be this outright... cruel. He knows how to strike at someone's weakest points, and that's what he's doing."

 "Should we have let Kikumaru go alone?" he asked in concern. The idea of what Fuji would do, had Kikumaru really pushed him too far, was too awful to consider.

"He and Kikumaru are close, though they haven't had much recent contact. I think Kikumaru will be fine," Inui said. "He's stronger than you think."

The car finally glided into the parking lot of  Oishi's apartment complex, a nice mid-range area that Oishi was probably going to remain in for a while. It was close enough to his family hospital that the commute wasn't burdensome, and he enjoyed the neighbors.

"I wasn't planning on staying at the reunion," Oishi admitted reluctantly. "But I can't resist. It's like I'm finding things I didn't know I had forgotten... finding bits of myself I needed." Oishi remembered Kikumaru's smile, Kawamura's pure joy in life and the quiet strength in the set of Tezuka's shoulders - even the way Fuji had hassled them all.

They had been his foundation, once.

"I knew you would," Inui said, and the smile played on his lips. "Class reunions, especially the first, are a good way to say goodbye to our past."

"I'm not sure if I was right to say goodbye anymore. But you can't go back," Oishi said. He smiled as his doorman greeted him, feeling himself relax a bit. His life was here, and he liked it.

Inui must have noticed, but as always, his astute comment made Oishi think. "There's no reason you can't go ahead and pick up some of what you lost. The truly important things always return to us."

*

Despite the time it took Oishi to shower, change and pack, they arrived back earlier than anticipated, which meant that they had the option of catching the reunion lunch. Oishi wasn't very happy about the idea since he'd been hoping to meet Kikumaru in a more private location, but Inui, as a member of the organizing committee, felt obligated to show up.

"Reunions are about seeing and being seen. It's a contest, Oishi, and you and I are two of the winners," he said. "The entire team has done well enough for itself."

He didn't like thinking like that, but he knew that was the truth. He, Inui, Tezuka and Fuji were all in enviable positions. And Kawamura and Kikumaru seemed to be enjoying themselves, so their success rate was truly amazing. "It's too bad Echizen wasn't in our class..." Oishi said, smiling slightly.

"He's still annoyed that he never beat Tezuka," Inui said, smirking back. "He sends me links to articles about his tournaments - for my records, he says."

Oishi couldn't stop from chuckling at Echizen's antics. He wasn't surprised that Inui had managed to maintain touch with their kohai even though he had become one of the most famous tennis players in the world. It was just the kind of thing he would do - and it probably irritated Echizen. "Does he see Kaidou often?"

"No. Kaidou is on the doubles circuit, so they only see each other at major tournaments, and neither is the type to seek the other out."

"Indeed." The two most anti-social members of their team had been the ones to end up in the limelight. The thought made Oishi laugh again.

"Both of them offered to get tickets for any of their senpai, should anyone want them," Inui said softly. "I think they'd enjoy seeing you again, though they wouldn't say that."

Oishi lowered his eyes. "I..." He knew that in his sentimental mood, he'd probably agree, and he didn't want to be making promises while feeling so muddled.

"Something to think on. Shall we go?"

The reunion lunch was taking place in the hotel ballroom, as the only place large enough to seat the entire class. There seemed to be more people here, with the fifty white-draped tables scattered seemingly at random throughout the room. Oishi kept his eyes peeled for the distinctive red hair, and was relieved to find Kikumaru seated in a place near where the group had been speaking the night prior.

Only Fuji and Kikumaru sat at the table, side by side, holding what seemed to be an intimate conversation from the way their heads were bent toward each other. Fuji noticed their arrival first, glancing up at them. His eyes landed on Oishi briefly, and for a split-second Oishi felt himself being weighed... and found wanting. Then a pleasant smile came to Fuji's face and he waved them over.

It took all of Oishi's courage not to high-tail it out of there.

Oishi studied the seats and carefully selected the one by Kikumaru. Inui took the one on Fuji's other side, leaving six still empty. This was a semi-casual buffet, and all four young men were in jeans, while most of their classmates had selected clothes a touch more formal. It amused Oishi that they were secure enough not to have to wear "status" clothes... despite Inui's previous lecture.

"It's okay," Fuji said almost immediately. "Eiji and I've settled things, Oishi, so there's no need to hover over him so protectively."

Oishi looked at Kikumaru who seemed to be content. "I'm sorry, I just..."

"It's not the first time Eiji's done something that was stupid, and it won't be the last," Fuji said, and he slanted Kikumaru an amused look. "But I should have considered his feelings more."

Kikumaru laughed a bit nervously. "I apologized, it's done. Fuji forgave me, so let's forget about it, okay?"

Oishi took a look at Fuji, wondering if the tensai was going to forget, and Fuji nodded slightly, indicating that he was going along with it. "That sounds best."

"Indeed. And next time, Eiji has already agreed that drinks are on him," Fuji said pleasantly.

Oishi groaned at the lousy joke and Inui's eyebrow twitched, but it broke the tension.

Ten minutes later, Tezuka and Kawamura had joined them, and Oishi found himself watching the way Tezuka and Fuji were treating each other. Tezuka seemed to have frozen the other man out, while Fuji was carefully avoiding talking to their former captain. Neither was looking at the other, which was an improvement from the attacks of last night, but Oishi missed the way it had been, when Tezuka had counted on Fuji... when they had been friends. Clearly, they were not anymore.

The tension between them wasn't allowed to build this time, though, not with Kikumaru leading the conversation in the "remember when?" game. Their school antics had everyone laughing, especially when Inui told Tezuka the story of "psycho bowler Oishi" and Oishi retaliated by telling the former captain of the whole Inui/Kaidou "date" phone exchange.

They had had some good times, and when they moved onto high school memories, they started talking about which girls they had dated, and slyly looking at them across the room to see if they had gotten prettier or fatter. Tezuka looked pained as Kikumaru teased him about his fan club, but brought up the fact that at least he'd never actually had one come to a tennis game and yell in front of the entire crowd that she was going to marry him.

Oishi remembered that incident. Luckily it had been during a preliminary match, because Kikumaru had been so distracted that Oishi had to pick up more than his share... but that was what partners were for. Kikumaru had returned the favor, more than once. Eventually, it all came down to tennis, and Oishi was saddened to learn that Ryuuzaki-sensei had retired.

"About three years ago, actually," Fuji said. "Didn't you receive the invitation to her retirement party?"

He might have, but he probably hadn't even opened it. At that time, his nose had been buried in his textbooks and he'd shut the rest of the world out. "She seemed like such an institution... I can't imagine Seigaku without her..."

The grins exchanged at his embarrassment were suspicious. "What?"

Kikumaru started to laugh. "Momo-chan took her place. He's coaching a team that might be almost as good as we were..."

"Momoshiro... is coaching?"

"And very well," Inui said. "They actually tried to get him to move up to the senior high or university division, but he refused. He wants to stay 'where it all began.'"

"We can go over and see him, ne?" Kikumaru said, bouncing a bit in his chair. "I wanna play!"

"There's probably some extra racquets around..." Inui mused, and he looked to Tezuka, waiting for his decision.

"It might be nice to get a couple of games in," the former captain mused.

"But first we should eat," Fuji said, and he looked at Kikumaru's plate. "Eat your salad, Eiji."

Kikumaru sighed as he stabbed a tomato vengefully. "Everyone is so mean to me."

"It's because we care," Oishi said.

Kikumaru's grin was brilliant in response. "That almost makes it worth eating lettuce."

END PART FOUR