Waah! I've gotten almost 50 reviews in ffnet alone! -huggles you all- Hoi, I feel so loved... -hearts flying around- Thank you so much, and I'm so sorry it take me long time to update... again.

Ah, and there's someone else from Finland again -glomps Little Myy- I love finding other Finnish people inffnet or the lj comms!

Hm, anyway, I'm gonna already apologize for the GP angstiness in this chapter -pout- It's all Fuji's fault! He keeps stealing my fluffy plot bunnies! Also sorry about the jumping from one personto another at the end part of the chapter.Anything else I need to say here... ah, the girls mentioned in this chapter really are Fuji and Eiji's classmates (just check the manga for yourselves) but I did choose Yoshiko on purpose -huggles yoshikochan-

Disclaimers: Yup, we all know already...

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Chapter 3: Notebooks and revelations

"Not so fast, Eiji", Fuji said with a smile as he stopped the redhead from dashing out of the room after the class ended. "I think we should talk."

Shimatta, he hadn't been fast enough! No, he didn't want to be interrogated by Fuji, especially not of this matter. Nya, what had he done to deserve this? Okay, so maybe he had deserved it but it still wasn't fair. Mou, if he just had kept his mouth shut about Fuji and Tezuka he wouldn't be in this mess right now.

"Let's go on the roof", Fuji suggested, leading the horrified looking redhead out of their class room before the Fuji fans, released from their classes, would come to look for the tensai. Again. "We have more privacy there."

Luckily the roof was empty when they got there. "Sit", Fuji said with a gentle voice but Eiji obeyed faster than he would have if it had been a strickt command from buchou or Ryuzaki sensei. He crossed his legs and concentrated his his gaze into a blue-winged butterfly flapping its wings lazily on the edge of the roof.

"So Eiji", Fuji asked, sitting down on his knees less than two feet away from Kikumaru. "Since when?"

"Since when what?" Eiji asked, knowing already that Fuji was never fooled by his dummy act. Though childish at times, Kikumaru was much smarter than most people gave him credit for.

Fuji's smile didn't change one bit. "Saa, maybe I should ask Oishi if..."

"Two weeks!" Eiji quickly cut the tensai's words. No, Fuji wouldn't say anything about this to Oishi!

So he had been right about one thing a least, the brunet mused by himself – it had been very recent. Also, it was obvious that Eiji hadn't told – or wasn't going to tell – Oishi about whatever his feelings towards the other boy were.

"How did it happen then?" Eiji heard the second question and winced as if in pain. He didn't want to talk about that. He didn't even want to think about it – that way he could always pretend he wasn't feeling anything different from before and could continue acting normally around Oishi.

It was all Yoshiko-chan and Mari-chan's fault! Couple weeks ago he had been talking with the girls before class and being Oishi fans, they had of course asked many questions about him. After countless of questions – that Eiji found being just one silly guestion after another – she had asked them what they liked about Oishi so much.

Both the girls had squeeled delighted at the guestion and Yoshiko had started explaining how she thought Oishi's smile was absolutely the best part about him and that when he smiled at you, you'd always blush. Eiji couldn't quite understand why it would make anyone blush. He always thought that Oishi had this warm, gentle smile that was always so genuine it made you smile too. Then the other girl told how she loved Oishi's 'dreamy eyes'. Eiji found it pretty hard not to laugh because of the goofy expression the girl had on her face when she said that but kept his face straigh anyway – it wouldn't have been nice to laugh at her and she pbobably would have gotten angry at him. Whatever there was "dreamy" in Oishi's eyes Eiji had no clue. Eiji did like Oishi's eyes though – they never lied. Oishi would never be untruthfull to anyone because he was honest to a fault. The rare times he said something that wasn't fully true was only because he didn't want to hurt anyone when the truth wasn't nice. When that happened, Eiji could still tell the truth by looking at Oishi's eyes because they never lied.

Both the girls went on and on how Oishi was so wonderfull when he always looked after everyone, was genuinely concerned if everyone was okay and would always be there to help anyone that needed help. Eiji felt a smile tugging his lips. Yas, Oishi was always there to take care others. He was like a mother hen... a true mother of Seigaku. And he cared for everyone exactly the same, not favoring... Or now that Eiji thought about it, wasn't it him that Oishi looked after the most? Eiji was the one that always got into trouble and Oishi was there to help him out of it. But Oishi never got angry with him (or not as angry as most other people would have anyways...) He'd just scold him and then smile that gentle smile of his... Did it suddenly get kinda warm in here?

The girls continued going on and on about how lucky Eiji was because he was the Golden Pair with Oishi. They always got to spend so much time together, Oishi always smiled the most when with Eiji (though everybody always smiled when with Eiji), Oishi always looked most at Eiji with his 'dreamy eyes' and Oishi always watched out for Eiji more than everybody else. For some reason Eiji felt his heartbeat quickening at this...

"Eiji-kun, are you okay? You seem like you might be running fever", Yoshiko said and put his hand on the boy's forehead.

"Nya?" Eiji blinked confused.

"Your face is all red", Mari explained. "Are you feeling alright? Maybe you should go see the school nurse."

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"Eiji", Fuji said. "You're spacing off. I asked you a guestion."

Kikumaru woke up from his thoughts and mumbled something about two girls from their class and then about something else that had to do with smiled and 'dreamy eyes'. It didn't really make much sense but Fuji wasn't a tensai for nothing so it wasn't too complicated for him to put the pieces together.

"Have you said anything to Oishi yet?" Fuji then asked but wondered whether or not Eiji himself understood what it was that he was feeling for his doubles partner.

Kikumaru's eyes opened in horror. "Nya! Never, I don't want Oishi to hate me..."

Fuji raised one eyebrow, opening his eyes confused. Now this wasn't going too well, he mused as Kikumaru looked like he was gonna cry. "Why on earth would you think he'd hate you?"

"Nya, not really hate..." Eiji spoke behind his knees that he had pulled in front of his face. "...but he'll probably get upset."

"How so? What if he likes you too?"

"I know he likes me, like friends do but... But he's straight so what's the point even thinking about that..."

"Straight?" Now Fuji really looked puzzled. "Where did you get that idea? Or better yet, what does that even have to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with it of course!" Eiji said. Didn't Fuji even get what he was saying? Mou, he had just found out he was gay and better yet, had a crush on his doubles partner and this is how his best friend acted? Was he even taking it seriously?

"Saa, but Eiji, I do think that it's irrelevant", Fuji said with a genuine smile on his lips. "So tell me... do you feel attracted to any other guys besides Oishi?"

Eiji looked like he wasn't really sure how he was suppposed to react to a guestion like that. "No... I don't think so."

"How about girls?"

"Dunno... I know these couple girls I like being with but... I don't think I like them in that way."

"So basically the only person you're having feelings for is Oishi. Ne, Eiji, I really don't think that qualifies as gay." Eiji was looking at Fuji with a look that seemed to be guestioning Fuji's mental stability. "Really, Eiji. There aren't people who are gay or straight. Those are just words made to describe something totally meaningless. The only thing that matters is who you fell in love with. Or even who you care for more than just a friend", Fuji added, figuring that love was most likely much too strong a word to use in this case.

Eiji stared Fuji a while longer. "Whatever", he shrugged." Still not gonna say anything to him."

"But what if he likes you too?" Fuji tried again. "Wouldn't you want to know if he did?"

"Well I don't know and I'm not gonna say anything", Eiji mumbled, annoyed. Fuji sighed – Eiji was gonna start one of his childish tantrums. There was very little you could do when he did that so...

It looked like Fuji would have to do some snooping around.

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Inui never let anyone see his prestigious notebooks, this Fuji knew by experience. For that reason, Fuji had come up with another way to get the information he wanted. Inui alway kept one notebook with him all the time but what most people didn't know was that he had more than just one notebook. And those other notebooks he kept safe from curious eyes in his locker in the club room. The lockers were, of course, locked, but for Fuji that was no problem. Neither was the fact that Inui kept changing the lock for his own locker every week.

If Inui really didn't know that Fuji regularly broke into his locker to take a look at the data player's notes, he was acting paranoid. And if he did know, then he was being rather naive, actually thinking that simply by changing the lock every once in a while he could keep the tensai away.

And why exactly did Fuji want to see the notebooks right now? As fun distraction as Tezuka was, he was still a distraction. It was all still new to Fuji too so he'd have to learn how to handle it but for the time being he needed to fill in the blanks in his observarion. Inui wasn't as skilled in noticing these kind of signs as Fuji was but the tensai was sure the data player wouldn't dissappoint him.

Sure enough, Fuji found what he was looking for under the title 'Golden Pair – Friends or more?' Fuji's smile widened more as he read through the notes. There weren't too many hints to point that Eiji was interested in anything more than just friends relationship but with Oishi there were actually several pages – gestures that individually could be interpret as motherly care but when placed into right context... Fuji was glad – at least Eiji didn't have to worry if Oishi liked him back or not – but at the same time he was mentally kicking himself. Oishi had obviously cared for Eiji longer than just few weeks. Had Fuji directed more attention to the vice-captain's behavious he would have noticed it by himself – and much earlier. Oishi was always looking after everyone so Fuji hadn't spent much special attention to how Oishi looked after Eiji more than the rest of them. After all Eiji was a master at getting himself into all kinds of trouble. But now that he read it from the notebook it just seemed so obvious!

Fuji put the notebook back into the locker and glanced at his watch. He had still about five minutes before the other tennis club members would start pouring in so he decided to take a look what else Inui had in his notebooks.

It didn't take long to find something about him and Tezuka – apparently Inui really had been clueless about the two of them which made Fuji kinda proud of how well they had been able to keep that from others. There were some interesting notes but apparently Inui had just counted them among Fuji's other sadistic acts.

And this seemed interesting... Fuji thought flipping through another notebook. All of the data was about Kaidoh and not so much of it was tennis related... Sure, Fuji had been aware that Inui was interested in Kaidoh and not just about his tennis but still... This could be actually called stalking and even that would be a huge understatement, Fuji thought amused.

Wonder if there's something interesting about the future pillar of Seigaku... Fuji flipped trough another notebook – one that was not just about Kaidoh and the exact measurements of his underwear – and wasn't really that surprised to find a page about the kid and Momoshiro. After all, those two spent much time together. The notes didn't really hint to anything romantic but Fuji could feel the medler's insticts kicking in action.

Fuji thought about looking if there were any notes on who Taka-san might have feelings for but quickly put the notebooks back to the locker and locked it as he heard voices coming closer to the locker room. Well, he had found what he was looking for...

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"Hey Eiji", Fuji said to get his friend's attention. The redhead hadn't acted like his usual hyper self after he had told Fuji... or rather after Fuji had made him to tell about how he felt about Oishi. He was angry. Well, angry and embarrassed. Maybe little scared too – scared that Fuji would tell Oishi about it. Fuji was his very best friend in the world but after all, it was because of him that the whole school knew about him and Tezuka. He didn't really have the right to ask Fuji not to tell Oishi but... Nya! This wasn't funny anymore.

"Eiji, I won't tell him. But you know..." Fuji whispered, leaning closer to his friend. "...I think it would be fair to tell him. After all, he's liked you as more than just a friend much longer than you have."

At that comment, Eiji somehow managed to tangle his limbs to his regulars pants that he was currently pulling on. He tripped and fell on te floor with a loud 'thump'.

"Eiji, are you okay?" Oishi was quickly on his partner's side.

Eiji shook his head to get rid off the stars and floating pink kitty heads flying around his head and tried to focus his eyes to the shape in front of him – one that he currently saw in three. He gave a surprised yelp seeing Oishi's face mere inches away from his and jumped up from the floor. However, with his balance still being kinda off he wasn't able to control his body movements too well and ended up bumping heads with Oishi.

"Are you okay?" they both asked the same time. They blinked a couple times and blushed.

For the love of God... This was way too embarrassing to even watch. Fuji felt like rolling his eyes. There had to be something illegal with two people being that dense. On the other hand who was he to talk – he just hoped the signs he had missed earlier hadn't been this obvious. That would be truly embarrassing.

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Fuji had definitely done something. This was the conclusion which Tezuka had reached after the practise games had been going on less than five minutes. Of the few people that had played normally during the morning practice, Fuji was now the only one. Kikumaru's consentration seemed to be way off and he was making several mistakes in his game. Tezuka wasn't sure if it was because of this or for some other reason that Oishi wasn't playing quite like his usual self either. And then there was Echizen but Tezuka already knew why Momoshiro – who wasn't playing as well as usual either – managed to score some easy points from the freshman. Of course, that locker room incident had been all Fuji's fault too...

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Nya, Fuji was so mean! Why did he keep staring all the time? It made Eiji feel nervous – Fuji was up to something nya good! Eiji couldn't possibly concentrate under the intence stare from the tensai and that caused him to make many mistakes with his acrobatics and he ended up crashing down in more or less painfull looking – and feeling – ways several times. Oishi would then always come to see if he was alright and that only served to make it even harder for him to concentrate! And Oishi would look after him concerned almost all the time and that look made Eiji's insides turn into jelly. Just add Tezuka's not pleased look to that and Eiji was about ready to run home crying. Nya, it had to be a nightmare!

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"I have to go! See ya tomorrow", Eiji said quickly after the practice ended. He dashed into the locker room to get his things without bothering to change his clothes and was gone. He either didn't hear or pretended not to have heard Oishi calling after him.

"Wonder what's up with Eiji-senpai?" Momoshiro wondered. "To leave in such a hurry..."

"Hn... We were supposed to go for some ice cream after practice..." Oishi said in a dissappointed voice.

"Maybe he forgot", Kawamura suggested.

"Well it's not like Eiji-senpai to forget anything food-related, especially if it's ice cream", Momoshiro mused. "Oi, Echizen. You have plans for the rest of the day?"

"Not really", the freshman answered walking towards the club room. "Why?"

"Wanna go grab some hamburgers with me? And we could go play on the street courts afterwards."

"Senpai's treat?" Ryoma smirked and Momoshiro's face dropped.

"Whaat? But I paid yesterday. Don't be unreasonable."

Oishi wasn't really paying attention to whatever it was his teammates were talking about.He had thought for the last week or so that Eiji had not been acting like usual. Someone who didn't know the redhead as well as he did probably would have missed it but Eiji had been... quieter than usual. That's why Oishi – even though he didn't aprove Eiji telling everyone about Tezuka and Fuji – had been happy that his partner had acted like his normal, hyper self again. But now... it seemed to be even worse.

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"Ne, Oishi... You okay?" Fuji asked the vice-captain. Only few of the regular players were left in the locker room.

"Uh, I'm fine", Oishi answered with a weak smile. "I was just wondering why Eiji was acting so strangely this afternoon. Do you have any idea?"

"Saa... Maybe he has a problem", the tensai suggested.

"Problem? What kind of problem?"

"Who knows? Maybe some kind of romantic problem. He might be in love." Fuji instantly felt guilty saying that when he saw the hurt look in Oishi's eyes. There was no way the boy could've known Fuji meant him. "Or maybe he's just not feeling well..."

"You think Eiji might be sick?" Oishi asked, hurt replaced with worry.

"He could be running down a fever or something... You saw how his face looked so red during the practice. Hm, maybe you should see if he's alright?"

"Ah, yes. I'll do that." Oishi grabbed his bag and headed to the door. "See you tomorrow then."

"Bye, Oishi", Fuji waved smiling to the boy. When Oishi had gone he turned to Inui. "Thank you for borrowing your notes."

Inui adjusted his glasses."I figured you would do that... So the new lock didn't work either?"

"Well it did take me fifteen seconds longer to open than the one you had last week."

"Interesting..." Inui mumbled, apparently taking mental notes about this.

"I don't see why you bother though. It don't really see much difference in what kind of lock you choose since the result will be the same anyway. Why not make it easier for both of us?"

"Maybe I have collected some data I prefer not to show to you."

"Ah..." Fuji nodded smiling and gave a meaningfull look to the direction where Kaidoh was packing his things. "Want some help?"

"Not to show any disrespect towards your matchmaking skills Fuji, but I'd rather you'd leave this one to me. You might scare him away. Besided, aren't your hands full with the Golden Pair?"

"So you noticed?" Fuji said, no amazement present in his voice. He played with the cellphone in his hands and was doing a quick count in his mind how long it would take from Oishi to get at Eiji's. "I'm pretty much done with this one... Oh, and by the way, Tezuka said you might have something to talk with me about."

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TBC...

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Hmm, what could Fuji be planning now? -lol- I've written the next chapter already and hopefully I have the time to type it soon! What's gonna happen to the Golden Pair? And it seems someone (-cough- Momo -cough-) leeks out the rumor about Tezuka and Fuji to other schools... -smirk-