A/N: Yay, new equally messed up chapter! Warning, I know even less about Mizuki's personality than I do Atobe's! This chapter is dedicated to Jenny-chan for being nit-picky in her corrections (which frankly didn't make much sense because we're both tired), as well as http://penal-tea.net for their in depth (and frankly amusing) character profiles as well their doujinshis. And finally to the tenipuri_yaoi community on live journal for inspiring me to write while I'm waiting for my trigun episodes to finish downloading.
--
Sakuno sat nervously, her hands clenched on her lap. She had just arrived at Super-Ultra-Mega-Extremely-Absolute-Cuts; the nearby barber shop. Coincidently it was also her new place of employment.
Today was her first day and despite the fact she had been given a post that almost promised she would not have to work, butterflies insisted on making themselves known within her stomach. The fact that her supervisor, who happened to be the only other person present besides Sakuno, had just departed for a lunch break, did not help said ailment.
After reassuring herself no one was going to show up, her unsteady "calm" was shattered into a million little tiny pointy bits, as the bell announcing someone's arrival rang.
Sakuno turned to see her very unlucky costumer. Upon recognizing him, her stomach plummeted towards oblivion. She, of course, recognized the almighty Atobe Keigo from her cheerleading at Seigaku's game against his team. She was also painfully aware of his obsession with his hair, among other aspects of himself.
"Make this quick, I have places to be," he said coldly. All she could do was nod vigorously before placing the plastic around his neck. She proceeded to pick up her scissors and spray bottle, then not do much else. The minutes stretched as she tried to find a place to start.
"What's taking so long?"
All she could say where a few umms and uhhs before she admitted to him that she couldn't see anything wrong with his current hair-cut.
"Don't be foolish! It is blatantly obvious the horrendous state my hair is in! Now fix it or I will leave without paying you!"
No! Not her first customer! She couldn't just let him leave. She had to make enough money to buy a top of the line racket, than Ryoma would finally notice her!
With renewed determination, she approached his head with the scissors… and froze with fear only inches from his hair. She could do it! She had to, she just needed faith. So she closed her eyes and collected herself. This would be no problem.
And so, with renewed confidence, she made her first cut. While this was a triumph within itself, it would prove to be a colossal failure for our poor Atobe. Because, you see, our dear Sakuno forgot to open her eyes!
~
Kabaji watched wearily as his fellow team mates ran about preparing the training facility for the arrival of the opposing teams. It was surprising how a few threats from Atobe could encourage people.
Why wasn't Kabaji, Atobe's right hand man, not helping out you ask? Well he had a higher purpose. He needed to acquire knowledge on a certain subject. Kabaji may not be the smartest shoe in the store but he could always be expected to learn about what was foreign to him. And said foreign subject just happened to be the meaning of "uke". And he had to be subtle about it. Well, as subtle as someone like Kabaji could be.
So far his plan to discover the meaning of the word had consisted of asking his team-mates. There's nothing wrong with being direct, right? But sadly, the majority of his peers where running about, scrubbing this, arranging that, and could not be bothered with Kabaji's child-like questioning. The only one, besides himself, who was not participating, was Jiroh. He had come out of the change room looking flushed and mildly ashamed. He then proceeded to take his place on the bench to brood about who knows what. When Kabaji had approached him with the inquiry, the red-head decided it was an opportune moment to not only evade any mention of ukes, but to run in fear at the mention of them.
So poor Kabaji was left standing in the middle of the court looking perplexed.
~
The Seigaku team arrived on time at exactly 12:30pm; Tezuka could not tolerate lateness in the presence of his rival, could he? Sadly it had all been futile, for he was met with the fact that said arrogant, spoiled, narcissistic, extremely fuck-worthy male was not in the team line up when they arrived. Oshitari explained that their captain had an urgent errand and he would return before the tournament commenced.
Oh well.
The team took their places on the sidelines, and after only a few minutes they became bored and began to wander about. Eiji was dragging Oishi around on a hunt for "the secret treasure of Hyotei™" buried somewhere on the school grounds. Ryoma and Kawamura where listening to Momo tell his story of how he had taught some pro tennis player the Dunk Smash serve, and he was now winning championships with it. Kawamura was listening avidly while Ryoma's eyes surveyed his surroundings. He watched with mild curiosity as Kabaji approached Eiji and Oishi. He seemed to be asking them something, and judging from the odd shade Oishi had just turned, as well as Eiji's nervous giggles, the prodigy suspected it may have something do to with their unsubtle "marriage" as some where now calling it behind their backs. But why would Kabaji know anything about it? Granted the only people who seemed to think it was a secret where the couple, the Hyotei member didn't strike him as the type to pick up on something like that, and especially question about it.
Having lost interest in Momo's story before it had even started, Ryoma headed towards the small group, followed by an annoyed voice.
"Hey! I wasn't finished! Get back here!!"
Completely ignoring the loud shouts of Momo-chan had become second nature to almost everyone on the team, so Oishi (who at this point was hyperventilating) nearly jumped two feet into the air when the youngest player appeared without warning next to him.
Ryoma simply looked from Eiji's blushing face to Oishi's purple-tinted one, and even to Kabaji's blank expression, waiting for an explanation. When none was given, he became bored once more, turned, and left with an annoyed "mada mada dane."
~
Kabaji frowned; the couple hadn't helped at all. The taller one had mumbled something about maybe asking someone else, before more or less running away, pulling the shorter one with him. If he didn't know better he would think they where afraid of him. He shrugged mentally and continued onto his next victim.
~
Back in the barbershop of horrors, things where much more tense. Well not so much tense as completely crazy. The inevitable had come and Atobe had discovered a large portion of his hair to be missing. The normally composed and calm team captain was now yelling about suing Sakuno for all she was worth. He was also resisting the urge to throw an all out hissy-fit and become violent.
Actually, this restraint was completely gone by the time he had picked up a pair of scissors and was about to induce bodily harm (as the courts would put it) on our poor barber-in-training. Luckily for her, the tinkling of the entrance bell diverted the crazed captain's attention. In the doorway stood a young man sporting the most trauma-inducing sweater known to mankind.
The silence of the shop was broken by Mizuki's stifled laughter. Atobe's face contorted in anger as he turned the scissors on St. Rudolph's team captain.
The laughter instantly stopped. Mizuki's face went completely serious, well minus the ever-so slight smirk that could only be detected if you knew his manipulating ways well.
"I heard the commotion from outside and decided to investigate. From the looks of it, this could easily be construed as assault, Atobe-kun."
Atobe slowly lowered the scissors, frowning. How he hated logic.
"Now don't you have someplace to be, hmmm?" Mizuki said soothingly.
Hyotei's team captain slowly nodded almost in a daze. "But what about my hair?" he asked, coming back to reality.
Mizuki simply grinned. "That can be dealt with."
--
Sakuno sat nervously, her hands clenched on her lap. She had just arrived at Super-Ultra-Mega-Extremely-Absolute-Cuts; the nearby barber shop. Coincidently it was also her new place of employment.
Today was her first day and despite the fact she had been given a post that almost promised she would not have to work, butterflies insisted on making themselves known within her stomach. The fact that her supervisor, who happened to be the only other person present besides Sakuno, had just departed for a lunch break, did not help said ailment.
After reassuring herself no one was going to show up, her unsteady "calm" was shattered into a million little tiny pointy bits, as the bell announcing someone's arrival rang.
Sakuno turned to see her very unlucky costumer. Upon recognizing him, her stomach plummeted towards oblivion. She, of course, recognized the almighty Atobe Keigo from her cheerleading at Seigaku's game against his team. She was also painfully aware of his obsession with his hair, among other aspects of himself.
"Make this quick, I have places to be," he said coldly. All she could do was nod vigorously before placing the plastic around his neck. She proceeded to pick up her scissors and spray bottle, then not do much else. The minutes stretched as she tried to find a place to start.
"What's taking so long?"
All she could say where a few umms and uhhs before she admitted to him that she couldn't see anything wrong with his current hair-cut.
"Don't be foolish! It is blatantly obvious the horrendous state my hair is in! Now fix it or I will leave without paying you!"
No! Not her first customer! She couldn't just let him leave. She had to make enough money to buy a top of the line racket, than Ryoma would finally notice her!
With renewed determination, she approached his head with the scissors… and froze with fear only inches from his hair. She could do it! She had to, she just needed faith. So she closed her eyes and collected herself. This would be no problem.
And so, with renewed confidence, she made her first cut. While this was a triumph within itself, it would prove to be a colossal failure for our poor Atobe. Because, you see, our dear Sakuno forgot to open her eyes!
~
Kabaji watched wearily as his fellow team mates ran about preparing the training facility for the arrival of the opposing teams. It was surprising how a few threats from Atobe could encourage people.
Why wasn't Kabaji, Atobe's right hand man, not helping out you ask? Well he had a higher purpose. He needed to acquire knowledge on a certain subject. Kabaji may not be the smartest shoe in the store but he could always be expected to learn about what was foreign to him. And said foreign subject just happened to be the meaning of "uke". And he had to be subtle about it. Well, as subtle as someone like Kabaji could be.
So far his plan to discover the meaning of the word had consisted of asking his team-mates. There's nothing wrong with being direct, right? But sadly, the majority of his peers where running about, scrubbing this, arranging that, and could not be bothered with Kabaji's child-like questioning. The only one, besides himself, who was not participating, was Jiroh. He had come out of the change room looking flushed and mildly ashamed. He then proceeded to take his place on the bench to brood about who knows what. When Kabaji had approached him with the inquiry, the red-head decided it was an opportune moment to not only evade any mention of ukes, but to run in fear at the mention of them.
So poor Kabaji was left standing in the middle of the court looking perplexed.
~
The Seigaku team arrived on time at exactly 12:30pm; Tezuka could not tolerate lateness in the presence of his rival, could he? Sadly it had all been futile, for he was met with the fact that said arrogant, spoiled, narcissistic, extremely fuck-worthy male was not in the team line up when they arrived. Oshitari explained that their captain had an urgent errand and he would return before the tournament commenced.
Oh well.
The team took their places on the sidelines, and after only a few minutes they became bored and began to wander about. Eiji was dragging Oishi around on a hunt for "the secret treasure of Hyotei™" buried somewhere on the school grounds. Ryoma and Kawamura where listening to Momo tell his story of how he had taught some pro tennis player the Dunk Smash serve, and he was now winning championships with it. Kawamura was listening avidly while Ryoma's eyes surveyed his surroundings. He watched with mild curiosity as Kabaji approached Eiji and Oishi. He seemed to be asking them something, and judging from the odd shade Oishi had just turned, as well as Eiji's nervous giggles, the prodigy suspected it may have something do to with their unsubtle "marriage" as some where now calling it behind their backs. But why would Kabaji know anything about it? Granted the only people who seemed to think it was a secret where the couple, the Hyotei member didn't strike him as the type to pick up on something like that, and especially question about it.
Having lost interest in Momo's story before it had even started, Ryoma headed towards the small group, followed by an annoyed voice.
"Hey! I wasn't finished! Get back here!!"
Completely ignoring the loud shouts of Momo-chan had become second nature to almost everyone on the team, so Oishi (who at this point was hyperventilating) nearly jumped two feet into the air when the youngest player appeared without warning next to him.
Ryoma simply looked from Eiji's blushing face to Oishi's purple-tinted one, and even to Kabaji's blank expression, waiting for an explanation. When none was given, he became bored once more, turned, and left with an annoyed "mada mada dane."
~
Kabaji frowned; the couple hadn't helped at all. The taller one had mumbled something about maybe asking someone else, before more or less running away, pulling the shorter one with him. If he didn't know better he would think they where afraid of him. He shrugged mentally and continued onto his next victim.
~
Back in the barbershop of horrors, things where much more tense. Well not so much tense as completely crazy. The inevitable had come and Atobe had discovered a large portion of his hair to be missing. The normally composed and calm team captain was now yelling about suing Sakuno for all she was worth. He was also resisting the urge to throw an all out hissy-fit and become violent.
Actually, this restraint was completely gone by the time he had picked up a pair of scissors and was about to induce bodily harm (as the courts would put it) on our poor barber-in-training. Luckily for her, the tinkling of the entrance bell diverted the crazed captain's attention. In the doorway stood a young man sporting the most trauma-inducing sweater known to mankind.
The silence of the shop was broken by Mizuki's stifled laughter. Atobe's face contorted in anger as he turned the scissors on St. Rudolph's team captain.
The laughter instantly stopped. Mizuki's face went completely serious, well minus the ever-so slight smirk that could only be detected if you knew his manipulating ways well.
"I heard the commotion from outside and decided to investigate. From the looks of it, this could easily be construed as assault, Atobe-kun."
Atobe slowly lowered the scissors, frowning. How he hated logic.
"Now don't you have someplace to be, hmmm?" Mizuki said soothingly.
Hyotei's team captain slowly nodded almost in a daze. "But what about my hair?" he asked, coming back to reality.
Mizuki simply grinned. "That can be dealt with."