"Laughing Matters"
-a Tennis no Oujisama fan-fiction by Calliope-
Chapter Two: Falling Together
Message: Hmm... i really don't have much to say this time around, I'm just hoping that if you've read this far you'll stick around for the whole thing! hehe! cuz i PROMISE! this will be finished! i've already wrote it all - it just has to be edited and posted! so none of that - half finished story stuff from me!!! NO WAY! heheh! Well! Anyway! R&R! Hope you're liking it!! CHI!
Summery: Eiji has found himself torn, between his new best friend, and the one person who has always been their for him. Confused and feeling like he can't have both - overcome with guilt and wishing there was something he could do - Eiji has to find a way to sort things out before he loses them both!
Warnings: shounen-ai, language, etc. EijiXOishi, EijiXJirou(everybodies favorite sleepy/hyper Hyotei boy!)
(Disclaimer: as much as I wish it wasn't true - none of these characters belong to me. TT sadness)
The next few days spiraled rapidly, with Seigaku's Regulars deep in practice for the next match of the regional finals and Tezuka, shaking up the whole dynamic, with his injury and talk of leaving. For Eiji, trying everything possible to find a way to ignore the stress and chaos of the days to come, was only natural.
rather ridiculous, excursion.
"Dahhh! Really! Gawd! They must have felt SO stupid!" Jirou's laughter rang back at him from the other end of the line.
The night after their fateful encounter, Eiji had gone strait home and dialed the number Jirou had so hastily scribbled onto his hand when they parted. After Jirou's mother had finally managed to wake him up, the two of them had talked for what was literally hours, about getting reamed out for their little encounter, and progressively whatever else came to mind.
"They just don't understand guys like us!" Eiji had told him once, sounding as though they were soul mates, "We just can't help but be a little worked up some times!"
"What's it matter to them anyway?" Jirou had agreed, "Bein' happy never killed anyone."
"Hey hey, if it was Tezuka I bet it might!" Eiji had laughed, having a difficult time imaging their, oh-so-stoic, captain so much as humored, let alone overjoyed.
"Hey! Hey! Kikumaru! What'd you say we skip practice and go out tomorrow!"
"Go out? Me and you?" Eiji snickered at his phrasing.
"Yeah yeah - that's right Eiji," Jirou mocked sarcastically, "Come on a date with me!"
"Hehehe! K K! Sounds like fun!" Eiji agreed, without so much as considering the consequences of skipping out on practice during such an important time.
"Yay! Alright! I'll meet you downtown right after class and we can go for icecream!"
"KAH! Great idea!" Eiji nodded excitedly, bouncing up and down on his bed.
"Alright, talk to you later then!" "K! Ja! Later Jirou."
Throwing the phone to the floor, Eiji flopped down on his bed and threw his feet up in the air, trying to contain his fitful laughter - like a girl who'd just set her first date.
A startling, but quiet, knock on his door snapped him back to reality and he sat up quickly. Oishi was standing in his open doorway, tennis bag slung over his shoulder, looking passively humored by Eiji's little fit.
"Oishi -"
"Still talking to him I see?" he said quietly.
"Um, yeah - I guess so." Eiji nodded, his face flushing at the thought of Oishi listening to him laughing like a moron. "How long have you been standing there?"
"I just got here, your mom let me in."
"Ah - well, come in then." he nodded, sliding over on his bed to invite him to sit down. Oishi shut the door behind him and set his bag down on the floor. He didn't sit down though, just leaned against Eiji desk, somehow seeming a little put out.
"Oishi, you ok?" Eiji asked him, tucking his knees under neither himself, and sitting up.
"Yeah, I'm fine." he nodded, "You two make plans or something?"
"Why?" Eiji smiled, trying to lighten the mood, "You think it's treasonous of me?"
"No." Oishi shook his head, not seeming to brighten at all, at Eiji's attempt to be amusing.
"So? What brings you here?" Eiji asked quietly.
"I was just gonna see if you wanted to go play tennis, but, if you're going out with your new friend, I wont stop you." he smiled a little, sounding sincere, and picking his bag back up.
"No! Wait!" Eiji jumped up, "I'm not going anywhere! Can't you stay?"
"If you want, yeah." Oishi nodded, shrugging and laying his rackets back down. They both sat back down on Eiji's bed, as Eiji twirled his hair uneasily around his finger. He was suddenly feeling bad about wanting to be friends with someone from Hyotei - after all, they were supposed to be rivals.
"I'm sorry - if you're mad." Kikumaru sulked, staring down at his bedspread.
"I'm not mad at all," Oishi shook his head, laughing a little at Eiji's nervousness, "I'm glad if you've found someone who you relate to better."
"I don't relate to him better!" Eiji exclaimed, shaking his head quickly, almost sounding offended at the suggestion.
"Hehe, you don't have to pretend like you don't Eiji, no one's gonna tell you who you can and can't be friends with."
"But, Oishi -"
"If there is someone who can understand you better, then you have every right to be friends with them. It doesn't matter if he's from Hyotei, it's not as though opposing players are forbidden to be friends or anything!" he laughed.
Oishi was always so level-headed and common-sense about everything. He always seem to be able to justify anything Eiji was feeling.
"No way Oishi!" Kikumaru pouted, jumping his best friend suddenly, and grabbing him around his chest, "No one understands me better then you!"
"Heheh, well - that's good to know." Oishi smiled, propping himself up with his right hand as Eiji hugged him tightly, pressing his cheek to Oishi's chest and whimpering quietly, as if he were expecting to be in trouble - but Oishi said nothing.
"Why don't you ever get angry with me Oishi?" Eiji asked him curiously.
"I do - all the time," he laughed, "I'm always telling you not to do things."
"That's not angry, that's irritated." Eiji pointed out, "I can only think of once that you've ever been sort of mad at me - and it didn't even last a whole day!"
"What, you want me to get mad at you or something?"
"No..." Eiji sighed, as he sat up again, and they looked at each other. Oishi smiled calmly at his oddly concerned doubles-partner, and shook his head. Eiji shoulders hung heavily, as he grabbed at the edge of Oishi's shirt.
"Well then -" Oishi suggested, "do you want me to be jealous maybe?" Eiji's eyes widened at the thought.
"I - don't know what I want." he confessed, feeling his heart beating quickly in his chest.
He felt overcome with a different sort of guilt, not just at having a new friend, who wasn't from his school, but over other things too. Oishi was, more important to him then anyone, but, maybe -
"It doesn't matter what you do Eiji." Oishi assured him, raising his hand to his friends face, and gently running his fingers threw his soft, curling, hair.
He was always so understanding, so caring - Oishi. Eiji had laid awake at night many times, wondering how he'd managed to hold on to someone like him for so long. How could someone as smart, and strong, and collected as Oishi be friends befriends with someone like him? That was what he had always wondered. When they were together, he sometimes tried to be more serious, but it really just wasn't in him. Kikumaru Eiji, was Kikumaru Eiji, and there wasn't any holding that back.
Akutagawa Jirou - he understood exactly what it felt like to be looked at oddly for being,
and acting on, exactly what you felt. He saw, and got, and understood a whole different side of Eiji, didn't he? But why then - did he have to feel bad about that? Eiji couldn't set it right in his mind.
"Oishi!" Eiji said suddenly, jumping at his friend again and throwing himself around his neck. They fell back against his bed, and Eiji pressed himself tighter against Oishi as they lay there. Whenever he was confused, Eiji always felt like, just by being around - Oishi could sort everything out.
"You're a strange one." Eiji could hear him smile, as he buried his face into his shoulder possessively and affectionately. Oishi gently stroked the back of Eiji's hair, ruffling those cute,
magenta-red, curls of his. It felt nice, the way Oishi always let him stay so close to him. He loved to be near him, with him, there was just something, certain and dependable about Oishi that he couldn't help but be in love with.
"Can you stay - with me, a while?" Eiji questioned him hopefully.
"As long as you want me to." he told him, wrapping his arms around the other boy as they lay there together, the way they so often did.
There was always an uncertainty hanging around them however, and both boys' minds were racing as quickly as their hearts were. Even though they knew for certain, that they had something that no one else could understand - neither could they. The feeling between them was never something they labeled. But, whatever it was, they had no idea how they could hold on to it.
(To be continued)