Unrequited: Part Two

Ibu Shinji was a man of few words.

….

Okay, let's re-do that.

Ibu Shinji was a man of few words, unless he felt otherwise.

Which was why Kamio Akira was a little (just a little) surprised when his blue-haired friend suddenly asked him, "What do you think of Kaidou Kaoru?"

Kamio wasn't sure how to respond to that question, so he responded with another question.

"What?"

"I said," Shinji repeated patiently, "what do you think of Kaidou Kaoru?"

"….an antisocial pain in the ass?" Kamio offered.

Shinji offered a 'hmm' in return.

"Why're you asking?" Kamio asked.

Shinji shrugged and stopped in front of a shop window, expressing great (silent) interest in the grip tape displayed.

Guessing that all he would get from Shinji would either be dead silence or an incoherent mumble, Kamio pondered the nature of Shinji's question by himself. Was it because Shinji was interested in Kaidou and wanted to see if Kamio was okay with it?

Kamio wrinkled his nose. He didn't quite like that.

Or was it because he thought there was something going on between him and Kaidou, and being jealous, he wanted to make sure there was nothing between the two of them?

Ah. That was better.

Not that Kamio liked Shinji in that way, but…he'd rather Shinji want him than Shinji want Kaidou. Right?

Kamio tried to deduce other possible explanations. Maybe he wanted to play Kaidou, or something. Ask him to teach him the Boomerang Snake, maybe?

But the last time Shinji asked a similar question about Tachibana, he had ended up asking Tachibana out (and had gotten rejected).

And before that, he had asked the same question about An to Ishida because he thought Ishida 'might be cool, maybe I want to ask him out, you know, but I catch him looking all the time at An, and….'

So it was pretty much either he was interested of Kaidou, or jealous of him.

Kamio blinked as Shinji waved his hand in front of his face.

"I'm going already. Ja."

"E-eh..?" Kamio looked around him. Sure enough, they had (somehow without him realising) reached the junction where they always parted ways to get home.

Seeing that Shinji had been long eaten up by the crowd, Akira strolled in the opposite direction.

It wasn't long before he was passing through the park near the street tennis courts. The sun was setting and it would soon be dark, but Kamio wasn't in the mood to hurry home, nor did he have a reason to hurry home either.

Just as he was about to take out his Discman, he spotted a lone figure running in the distance.

The lone figure was running at pretty high a speed, so it wasn't long before Kamio realised it was the one Kaidou Kaoru.

Kamio didn't know why he was feeling a bit genial, but he greeted him with "Yo", and got a "Fsshhhuuu…" in return.

On a whim, Kamio turned around. "Want to play tennis?" he called out. He wasn't sure why he'd done that. Maybe he was still sore about that match he lost. Or maybe it had something to do with Shinji's question. (In what way whatsoever, he wasn't sure, but….maybe.)

Kaidou had slowed down and turned around a little uncertainly, as if he wasn't sure Kamio was actually speaking to him.

Kamio gestured to his tennis bag.

Kaidou grunted consent and they both trudged up to the street tennis courts, managed to find an empty court, and started to play a set.

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Half-way home, Shinji stopped, and reversed his direction.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he knew that Kaidou would be running at the park at about this time.

Or maybe it didn't.

xxxxxxxxx

Kamio couldn't concentrate. There were too many random thoughts in his mind. Well they weren't exactly random, but definitely they had little to do with tennis, or with the game he was playing right then. It revolved around the fact that Shinji may or may not be interested in his bandana-wearing opponent.

Kamio kept finding himself checking Kaidou out, trying to see what was it about Kaidou that could have piqued his best friend's interest, even though he did make a concerted effort to focus on his game.

Maybe Shinji finds his antisocial attitude attractive. After all, Kaidou would hiss at his random mumbling, and Shinji wouldn't mind if it didn't really interrupt him. He did get a bit offended when Ishida told him to keep quiet on their first date.

Maybe it's his determination, or his aptitude and whatnot.

Maybe it's just his damn bandana.

Kamio suddenly snapped out of his reverie when he realised that Kaidou was walking away from the tennis court, towards the bench where they'd thrown their bags.

"O-oi!" he'd yelled from across the court. "What the hell are you doing?"

Kaidou glared at him. "You aren't even focusing on the game, you rhythm idiot!" he hissed. "Why the hell'd you ask me to play with you when you're not even playing properly? What a damn waste of time."

Kamio just glared at him because he knew it was true. He followed suit, walking towards the bench where Kaidou was seated, towelling his sweat.

Kamio sat on the bench and started to pack his things.

Then he realised that Kaidou was staring rather intently at him.

"What?" he asked irritatedly, feeling a little embarrassed as he felt his cheeks burn up.

Is that a blush I see on Kaidou's che- umphf.

xxxxxxxx

Strange. I thought he'd running here. He usually is. Not that I meet him or anything. Technically I do, just that he doesn't see me. Well of course he wouldn't, since I'm always strategically behind a tree or something. You know.

Maybe I'll just drop by the tennis courts. Maybe An-chan is there. Maybe she could give me good advice, like whether I should ask Kaidou out, or how should I do, it, and stuff. Girls are always good at this. Well, not that guys aren't good at it. I'm sure Kamio'd help me too, but he always was a bit on the loud side.

Hey, someone's sitting there. Two someones. Hmm, I wonder- oh.

xxxxxxxxx

As two boys remained in a tight liplock, another blue haired boy stared silently at them from behind the wired fence.

Then he quietly walked away.

Owari

A/N: Wow. I didn't know I would continue this unrequited series thing! But this just hit me in the showers.

I'm really really touched by the reviews I received from my previous one-shot, Promises, and the Dark. I had a lot of fun writing it, and I'm glad you guys had fun reading it. Thank you so much, Itifal, Risa-chan, Maria-chan, ariark, Hikari no Yami.

I didn't realise how many FujiEiji fans (like me!) around here, mainly because there aren't many FujiEiji fics- not that many, anyway. Hmm…I'll try my best to write some more of that if I get hit by inspiration, or something.

I didn't think I would get such a good response, so I'm really really touched. Thanks once again.