Rating: PG-13 Disclaimer: Prince of Tennis is Konomi-sensei's.
Notes: In the Gundam Wing fandom, I write Heero/Trowa. Regarding them, I wrote a story with a base idea a lot like this fic, but it was super-angsty for me. So, this one is super-sweet. I love my InuKai and cannot bear to give them angst... yet. So, here we go. This is part one of my "Congruence" arc.
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Kaidoh likes to fold every note he gets like origami. The ones his parents are meant to receive from school are folded like flowers for when he gives them to his mother. The notes from girls in his class are folded like Chinese water boxes, and if they're not in his class, frogs. Kaidoh does not want to date anyone he won't see often, and, really, isn't sure about dating girls either. Notes from the other regulars on the tennis team are folded like four-pointed stars, unless they're from Inui-senpai. Notes from Inui-senpai are always folded like paper cranes. Even Kaidoh doesn't know why he started doing it, but when Inui started giving him a note a day, sometimes several pages long, Kaidoh would secretly smile and begin to fold after he read his note. They were about training and tennis and data and juice and all sorts of things that Inui might have told him in person, but Kaidoh liked Inui's notes. He folded each page seperately and numbered and dated them. He was sure that it Inui found out about it, he would be amused by Kaidoh's attention to detail.
Today, Inui had not given him a note and Kaidoh was surprised. But they were meeting up later on for more training, so maybe that was all it was -- he might get a note then. After all, Inui couldn't very well stop after 993 pages of notes, could he? And it wasn't as if Inui expected a response either... he'd said so in the first note.
Kaidoh received a further surprise that evening when Inui was late to their meeting. It was only by 37 seconds (not that Kaidoh had checked his watch every few seconds), but Inui was never late. When he showed up, though, he had a handful of papers. He handed them to Kaidoh, said, "Come find me when you're done," and walked off into the park. Kaidoh looked at the stack of papers, gulped down some air and sat down on one of the park benches to read.
When Kaidoh finished reading, he started to fold. He needed to in order to think about what the note said. It was... it was a love letter -- from Inui-senpai! Kaidoh folded and folded and still couldn't quite wrap his mind around it -- Inui-senpai was in love with him?
As Kaidoh laid the last crease in the final crane, he pulled a pencil from his bag and began to label the cranes. On the final crane, however, as he went to add the number "1000", he found that written along the crane's spine were the words "One thousand paper cranes for luck and love in all that you do". Kaidoh had not noticed the words on the paper as he'd been reading and folding (though he'd been understandably preoccupied) and now he felt a surge of warmth go through him. Inui-senpai knew exactly how he folded his paper cranes.
Kaidoh gathered the cranes into his hands after tossing his tennis bag over his shoulder and made his way out into the park to find Inui-senpai. He was sitting under a tree looking off into the distance as Kaidoh approached. "You may be wondering why now," Inui asked. Kaidoh nodded. "Because there's some place that I want to take you next week. And because I don't want to wait any longer."
"Thank you for all of your notes, senpai," Kaidoh said. "And I'd go with you anywhere so long as you asked."
Inui smiled and took off his glasses and faced Kaidoh. "Would you stay with me, then?"
Kaidoh blushed, "Inui-senpai..."
"Just here... like this." Inui grasped Kaidoh's hand and held it between his own. "Let's watch the sunset?"
Kaidoh looked at his hand and the way the orange light of the setting sun already washed their skin in color. "Okay, Inui-senpai." He looked up again and found himself staring at Inui's eyes. He moved closer and closer to see the flecks of amber that hid in his irises until he realized just how close he was to Inui-senpai. He was about to back away, but Inui's arms wrapped around him and held him there. Kaidoh could feel his cheeks flush again. "Inui-senpai..." he murmured.
Then, suddenly, though he fully expected it, Inui kissed him. It was comfortable and Kaidoh was amazed by the softness of Inui's lips and how yielding his own were to those lips. For all of Inui's brutality during their training sessions, he was so gentle now.
"Inui-senpai," he suddenly asked just as the kiss was done (his lips dragging over Inui's on the first few syllables), "are you still going to be my training partner?"
Inui smiled. Without his glasses it wasn't as menacing. "I'll be here as long as you want me around."
They sat comfortably in silence under the sunset; Inui's arms around Kaidoh's shoulders and Kaidoh's head resting softly on Inui's chest.
"Hey, Inui-senpai, where are you going to take me?"
"A petting zoo."
Kaidoh smiled a bit, then quirked his eyebrow. "Isn't it supposed to be the person who folds the 1000 cranes who has their wish come true?"
Inui looked down at Kaidoh. "You wouldn't have folded them without me. So this can be our wish come true."
Kaidoh relaxed even more in Inui's embrace.
Eventually, they would get up and possibly even go practice a bit, but it was comfortable for Kaidoh right now to be folded in Inui's arms like a perfect paper crane. Every fold had come together, and Kaidoh smiled because for all of the folding he'd done, Inui had made the best fold of all.
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Owari.