Author's Note: Here's part two! It explains the whole reason as to why Oishi is knitting a present for Eiji. There's some further background about how Valentine's Day and White Day works in Japan, so hopefully it will answer any possible questions. Remember, it's Golden Pair fluff, subject to interpretation and all that fun stuff.
I'll post the last part first thing tomorrow. I hope it's worth the wait. Thanks for your patience, everyone.
Please review! Reviewers earn cyber cookies! And most importantly, enjoy. :)
It had all started less than a month ago.
It had been the dreaded month of February, the month that just happened to contain the holiday feared the most by males around the globe. Valentine's Day was a favorite day for girls, of course, but navigating the confusing ritualistic etiquette required of the festivities wasn't easy for any guy, much less with the rules in effect in Oishi's own country of Japan. Basically, the idea was as follows: walk around as cluelessly as possible all day to give girls the chance to confess their undying love and hand you chocolate. And then mentally make a note to give them something in return in a month if you valued their affection on any level whatsoever. And if you didn't… Well, you'd probably be better off trying to avoid them all day in February than have to answer possible questions later. Although as far as politeness went, that wasn't exactly an easy line to toe.
Of course, it had been a particularly unpleasant day for several of Oishi's fellow tennis club members, given how famous the sport had become at their school as a result of the various honors they'd acquired. The more attractive team members ended up being forced into an awkward game of hide and seek in an attempt to avoid being deluged by their respective female fans. And Ryoma Echizen in particular had been completely smothered by the united affection of dozens of hyperactive first year girls, although the attention he had received from that one noisy pigtailed girl whose name Oishi couldn't recall would have been enough to terrify anyone in itself.
Eiji Kikumaru, however, had graced through the day with characteristic ease, accepting any gift handed to him with his usual sparkling charm. Moreover, he had happily bounced around the locker room during afternoon practice and handed out gifts of his own to all his fellow team members, demonstrating, although pleasantly, a complete inability to grasp that the custom was supposed to be that only girls handed out the chocolate, and the guys just took what was handed to them. Of course, Oishi didn't doubt for a second that even if Eiji did realize this, he would have no second thoughts about shattering the tradition, which was probably the case. Oishi also happened to know that one of Eiji's off-and-on hobbies was cooking, and he'd probably been watching his older sisters preparing their own chocolate and decided to try his hand at it. Not to mention it would give the hyper acrobat a chance to satisfy his own sweet tooth by licking the chocolate off his own fingers.
All in all, it really was no surprise whatsoever that Eiji Kikumaru had handed out chocolate on Valentine's Day, and it definitely wasn't a surprise that Oishi had therefore received some chocolate from his best friend.
But that left Oishi with a strange question, even after he'd finished off the last of the chocolate (which had been remarkably good).
What was he supposed to do for White Day?
Traditionally, guys were supposed to give girls a present on March 14th in return for whatever chocolate they'd received on Valentine's Day. But as far as Eiji giving him chocolate, that didn't exactly fit with tradition in the first place, and it was very likely that Eiji hadn't even thought of the possibility of getting something in return. Which also made it possible that getting the impulsive redhead a gift would just perplex him and lead to some confusion that could very well spell embarrassment for the giver. On the other hand, if Eiji did expect something, which could also be possible, what with his spotlight-loving personality… It would be nothing but trouble not to have a gift for him.
Finally, Oishi had decided he would just go ahead and find some kind of gift for his best friend for White Day.
And after not being able to find the particular thing he'd had in mind, he had decided to make it himself, remembering something his friend had once said about never having received anything for a gift that was handmade.
Besides, that particular red just wasn't something you could buy in a store anyway.
His thought process had gone something like this. He couldn't think of much that Eiji liked that he didn't already have. But it had certainly been a cold winter, and that was one thing Eiji didn't like… Being cold. The acrobatic tennis player even had a habit of keeping his jacket zipped all the way up on the sunniest of days. Which made Oishi think that maybe something Eiji could actually use would be a really warm scarf. But as far as all the colors he could think of, nothing seemed to suit his friend so well as a particularly vibrant red he just happened to have in his drawer, in the form of a bright ball of yarn left over from his early knitting projects. Nothing he saw in the stores caught his eye as much as that flaming red color that kept flashing through his mind whenever he pictured his friend wrapping a scarf around his neck.
And that, in the end, had settled the question.
Oishi was giving Eiji a red scarf for White Day, and he was going to knit it himself.
Of course, the more he thought about it, the more he realized the whole thing was crossing a line into being downright ridiculous. How sentimental could you get? He felt like some teenage girl knitting a present for her boyfriend. Then again, it was his customary habit of over-analyzing everything that was making the whole thing awkward in the first place. So he decided he'd give it no further thought and just plunge into the project with all the gusto he could manage, minus the sense of romanticism it seemed to imply.
Besides, the gift was for Eiji, and of all the people in the world, Oishi felt most confident that Eiji would understand. In fact, he knew he would. And so he didn't really have to worry, even if the end result ended up being somewhat embarrassing. Eiji would still be Eiji, and he'd enjoy the attention, if nothing else.
Of course, in the days that followed as the project neared completion, there were still some uneasy moments, mainly involving the observations of people a bit more down to earth than Eiji himself.
"Oishi, why are your fingertips so red?" Fuji had remarked suddenly in the middle of a conversation about the practice lineup one day.
"Red?" Oishi had glanced down at his hands, which were clasped around the clipboard he was holding. Sure enough, his fingers were starting to get a bit stained with that bright red dye in the yarn he'd been using. He must have really been on a roll the night before. He couldn't remember ever knitting so long that his fingers had started sporting the color of the yarn.
"Uh… well, that is…" He'd fumbled around with a few words, unable to decide on an appropriate excuse.
But Fuji had just smiled and changed the subject, to something concerning Eiji, oddly enough. In retrospect, Oishi wondered if Fuji had some idea of what he'd been doing. Given the keen perception of the Seigaku tennis prodigy, he wouldn't have been surprised to learn this was the case.
Either way, March 14th was just around the corner, Oishi thought to himself as he finished another row. And the scarf, too, was almost finished.
All that was left was for the day to arrive. And for him to give it to Eiji.
- end of part two -
A/N: I'll post part three tomorrow! Let me know if you like it so far (or if you don't). :)
