"Laughing Matters"

-a Tennis no Oujisama fan-fiction by Calliope-

Chapter Three: Falling Apart

Message: When I wrote this story I'd only watched up to episode 80. I'm over 100 now but, I'm still not going to acknowledge any of it. I'm editing it as if I still knew no more then I did then - such is the way of it. And yeah, hmm - I am making Oishi be a bit of a bastard some times hehehe, but it'll be ok - again, trust me!

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

(Disclaimer: as much as I wish it wasn't true - none of these characters belong to me. TT sadness)

oooooooooooo — (the o's are here for dividers cuz FF edits out my asterisks for some reason, sorry)

Classes ended the next day and the members of the tennis club all hurried off to change into their uniforms for practice. The Regulars all threw on their matching jerseys and grabbed their rackets, heading out to the courts to being their usual exercises.

"Fuji, Echizen, have you guys seen Eiji?" Oishi called to them as he joined them on the court.

"Not lately I haven't. Sorry." Fuji shook his head.

"Nope." Ryoma shrugged.

Ten minutes, then half an hour, then an hour - practice slowly went by and Kikumaru was nowhere to be seen. Despite constant reminders from his team mates, not to worry, Oishi was doing just that. It wasn't like Eiji not to show up for practice, and even less like him not to tell anyone why.

The second he had dismissed everyone and gotten changed, Oishi was on the phone calling Eiji's house.

"Hello? It's Oishi, is Eiji home?"

"Oh, Oishi-kun, hello!" Eiji's mother answered sweetly, "No, he's not here. Isn't he at practice with you?"

"No, he never showed up, I was just thinking maybe he'd gone home."

"No - he hasn't been here." she told him, with evident concern in her voice, "But if you find him, or if he shows up, get him to call, all right? And I'll do the same." she assured him, knowing full-well how much it was like Oishi to fret.

"Alright, thank you very much. Bye now."

"Kikumaru-sempai, not at home either?" Ryoma asked, seeing the concerned expression on Oishi's face when he hung up.

"No, he's not."

"You're going to go look for him then I take it?" Fuji said.

"Yeah." he nodded.

"I wouldn't worry about Eiji, Oishi," Kawamura told him, "you know he'll turn up sooner or later. It's probably nothing to be worried about."

"I know, but still..."

oooooooooooo

"Acrobatic tennis?"

"Yeah! Kikumaru here's an expert! Aren't you Eiji!" Jirou gloated, over-dramatically, to a pair of pretty girls he and Eiji were talking to at the icecream parlor.

Eiji had arrived right after class, to find Jirou asleep at one of the corner tables on the patio. He'd woken him up by spitting water at him threw his straw, drawing stares and giggles from some adjacent girls. When Eiji'd finally gotten him up, the two's loud voices and stupid antics began to draw a bit of a crowd. Three hours later - and they were still sitting at the same table talking to the same two girls who'd first been laughing at them.

"Ehhh! Jirou! I'm not an expert!" Eiji declined his complements, his face turning red.

"Sure sure you are!" Jirou laughed, throwing his arm around Eiji's shoulder. "Why don't you show em' a little somethin' hey!?"

"Ehh! No way! I couldn't!"

"Awww! Please Kikumaru-kun!" the girls begged him, smiling cutely, and bitting their lower lips in anticipation.

"Ehhh... chiii, ok! You talked me into it!" he laughed, getting up from his seat and grabbing for his tennis bag. "Eh, Jirou-kun, give me a hand k?!"

"For sure! For sure!" He jumped up and Eiji handed him one of his practice rackets.

"K," Eiji crossed the patio and jumped up onto the thing railing that separate the store front from the sidewalk. He walked down towards the end without so much as a falter and threw a ball back to Jirou. "you go to the other side of the street and hit one at me, I'll jump from here and hit it back at you from between my legs k?"

"Sure thing!" he nodded without question, and jumped the rail and ran out across the street.

"No way! Oh my gawd! Be careful Kikumaru-kun!" the girls yelled at him.

"No prob!" he smiled back at them with a wink, making them giggle even harder.

"READY!?" Jirou called to him.

"Go for it!" Kikumaru shouted back, bending his knees and setting up to jump.

Jirou threw the ball up extra high and hit it as hard as he could directly at Eiji, who pushed off of the rail hard and fast. Putting extra weight on his right foot he turned his body in the air till his back was to the ball; and lifting his knees as the ball shot at him, he swung his racket hard between his legs and hit the speeding, yellow target, right on the mark, sending it shooting strait back at Jirou, who caught it bare handed.

"EEE! Kikumaru-kun SUGOI!!" The girls cheered and clapped from the table.

"Do it again!" One of them laughed, totally impressed by, what was for Eiji, completely simple. They ran over to the rail and waved out to Jirou who nodded and set up to serve it again.

"Alright! Stand back! One more time!" Eiji laughed, steadying himself on the rail again.

"READY?!"

"READY!"

Jirou wound up and hit off another super-strait serve directly at Kikumaru.

"EIIJI!"

"Huh?" Startled by the sound of his voice, Eiji looked up, setting him off balance.

"EIJI LOOK OUT!" Jirou shouted at him. But it was too late, he didn't jump and Jirou's arrow-strait serve hit Eiji squarely in the shoulder, sending him falling backwards onto the patio.

The girls both squealed and ran to his side, and Jirou dashed back across the road in front of several cars, and hopped the rail.

"Eiji! You ok?" he asked, grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet.

"OW! What the fuck! Who the hell?!?"

"EIJI!" the now, all too familiar, voice called him again, as Oishi came running up the sidewalk and over to them.

"Oishi!" Eiji shouted, "What are you doing here?!"

"What are YOU doing here!" he questioned him back, his hands flailing madly as he gestured at them. Eiji still had his hand in Jirou's and they both quickly let go when they noticed.

"Kikumaru-kun, Akutagawa-kun," the girls gather around them, pulling on their shirt sleeves, obviously put off by Oishi's yelling.

"It's ok," Eiji assured them, with a charming little smirk, "we'll see you guys again later ok?"

"K!" they both smiled, and promptly dashed off, giggling as they went.

"Eiji!" Oishi yelled at him again, irritated that he was being ignored.

"WHAT!?"

"What do you think you were doing?!"

"Just showing them some tennis! Right Jirou?" he laughed, and they both smirked.

"You coulda' hurt yourself, idiot!" Oishi went on scolding him.

"The only reason I GOT hurt, was cuz you started yelling at me!" Eiji pointed out angrily, as he rubbed his painfully stinging left shoulder.

"Yeah - you ok, Eiji?" Jirou asked him, "I hit that serve pretty hard!"

"Ehhhh, yeah I'm ok!" he smiled at him with a nod, rotating his shoulder to show him he was alright.

Hearing Jirou calling Eiji by his first name only served to make Oishi even madder, as he shook his head, almost in disgust, at how stupid Kikumaru was being.

"Why'd you skip practice?" Oishi asked him, trying to calm down.

"I don't know, I just wanted to." Eiji shrugged, folding his arms behind his head, and turning his attention back to Jirou rather then Oishi.

"Would you look at me when I'm talking to you!?" Oishi snapped at him, unable to hold back his irritation.

"What are you - my mother!?!" Eiji asked him heatedly, his hands firmly on his hips in defiance. "Come on Jirou... lets go." he shook his head, turning his back to his friend and walking off.

"Eiji! Wait!" Oishi called after him, but he didn't listen - he and Jirou just took off down the sidewalk - the Hyotei boy the only one who so much as looked back.

oooooooooooo

(To be continued)