Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue. PoT is Konomi-sensei's.
Rating: PG
Pairings: Inui/Kaidou
Warnings: none really
A/N: Thanks to Chibimono and Hellen and Aaincognito for pushing me to finish this.
Their relationship was an unique one.
Kaidou didn't fancy himself the friendship type. He had no desire to have a close tie with anyone like the Golden Pair did with each other. He didn't have the patience to tolorate the goofy and somewhat annoying connection that the idiot Momoshiro and the little brat had. And certainly, he didn't care for the... whatever it was that his Buchou and Fuji shared - cause really he may have been antisocial, but he wasn't stupid or blind, and he knew there was i something /i there. Perhaps that's why he didn't mind Inui being around him so much, because Inui didn't want those things either.
There had been no ulterior motives to him offering to keep up with a personal training menu for Kaidou. There wasn't any indication of wanting to become buddies when Inui tracked him down at the river that day and asked Kaidou to play doubles with him.
It was all about the tennis.
Inui had been straight forward with him since the first day they met, and that's what Kaidou i liked /i about Inui.
Inui didn't beat around the bush like Fuji liked to do. Inui wasn't stupid like Momoshiro, or too arrogant for his own good like Echizen. He wasn't an attention hog like Kikumaru, or a push over like Oishi. In fact, the only people besides Inui that Kaidou would actually admit to favoring were Tezuka, because he was, after all, Buchou, and he liked his tenacity, and Kawamura, because he left Kaidou alone most of the time. Everyone else just needed to learn how to mind their own business.
He supposed that Inui didn't much know how to mind his own business, either, really. It wasn't like he had actually asked Inui to help him with his training schedule. He just happened to know when to not look a gift horse in the mouth. Plus, after he had grudgingly agreed to play doubles with Inui, their business, more often than not, would be the same.
They were partners, nothing more, nothing less. This is why Kaidou didn't mind meeting Inui outside of practice for self-training in the park. They weren't friends. They did it to increase their compatibility on the doubles court.
Because it was only about the tennis.
Kaidou didn't pause once when they started to walk home together after the training. They did live in the same general direction, after all. And as a senpai, it was Inui's unspoken duty to make sure Kaidou made it home okay every night. Not that he needed the extra... protection? Accompaniment? Security. He could take care of himself perfectly fine.
It wasn't long after that Kaidou's family started inviting Inui over for dinner. It wasn't an odd thing for his family to follow traditional values. Actually, if his family could be said to be one thing, it would be tradition laden. They were only thanking his Senpai for holding an interest in Kaidou's well-being in school, something that any good senpai does. It didn't mean they were anything more than teammates...
At first.
Then Inui started asking Kaidou to accompany him more and more outside of school, and not always just for extra training. Sometimes he would ask his kohai to come with him to the supply shop and help him pick out some new equipment. Sometimes he would ask Kaidou to come see a movie with him, usually a sports one that Kaidou particularly, and surprisingly, wanted to see too.
Kaidou was okay with this, because when they were out, they never talked about things 'friends' talked about, like girls or... whatdid male friends talk about other than girls? Well, whatever it was, they didn't talk about it, because they weren't friends.
Definitely not.
He didn't know when they started to have the quiet times out by the river after their runs. It seemed so natural to him that they would want to cool down in a place where the scenery was a bit pleasent on the eyes. Because, you know, they would be there awhile. Occasionally, they would find themselves there on days when they weren't doing something tennis-related, but routines are hard to break, and that was fine.
Soon, he began to not question when things began to happen that used to not. He didn't question the times he fell asleep at the river, head resting lightly on the shoulder of his partner. That usually only happened when they ran, so it was logical that he would be that tired sometimes. Sometimes Inui would reciprocate, and one would wake to find that they had both drifted off. And they both felt peaceful after those times. Calm.
Even loved, perhaps.
Okay, so maybe the day after they started holding hands casually as they walked home from school in the afternoons, Kaidou realized that they had entered into a relationship somewhere along the line. It wasn't a friendship, though. He didn't need friends. He just needed Inui. Nothing more, nothing less.
And maybe it wasn't just about the tennis anymore.
But no one else needed to know that.