Kikumaru Eiji licked his lips in anticipation, he have been waiting for this day for a very long time. His parents have agree to let him have a birthday party this year. In the past, it's impossible for him to have a party as his family were usually away for vacation and were doubtful of his ability to keep the house tidy after the party. However, this year his parents have allowed him to have friends over for the party; provided that he tidied up the house after the party himself.
Staring at the beautiful strawberry cake, he had picked out earlier on from the bakery. Eiji smiled in satisfaction as he stand back to survey the room's decoration. As if on cue, the doorbell rang indicating people have started arriving. Bouncing past the living room towards the front door, Eiji pulled the door opened and gestured for his guests to come through.
He greeted his guest enthusiastically, but paused slightly at the sight of his long time crush, Marui Bunta, of Rikaidai. Blushing furiously, he gestured for Marui to enter before closing the door. Glancing at his friends with a happy beam on his face, he cleared his throat awkwardly and started.
"Thanks for dropping by, I'm going to bring out the cake now. I hope you guys don't mind having strawberry cake, do you?" Eiji hesitated.
Before anyone could say anything, someone exclaimed. "Of course, I loved having strawberry cakes!"
Looking over to the source, Eiji blushed furiously but managed a soft "Thank you! Feel free to have as much as you like."
"Come on, Eiji... I'll help you out." Oishi smiled at his ex-doubles partner earnestly.
"Sure, come with me then." Eiji beamed happily back at his long time friend.
Despite being in the same school, the two of them were no longer doing doubles together. They are now playing with others in their high school tennis club, yet, they still remained close as always. Oishi always seems to know what the redhead was thinking about, the same to go for Eiji. He could always read Oishi like an open book, and he was the one who played matchmaker for Oishi and his other friend, Fuji Syuusuke.
"Anou...Eiji, is there a particular reason why you chose to have strawberry cake on your birthday?" Oishi started hesitantly.
"Nyah? What do you mean?" Eiji pretended to be oblivious despite knowing it's impossible to fool Oishi since the latter knew him far too well.
"Eiji, seriously. You choose strawberry cake, because of Marui... isn't it?" Oishi asked.
Eiji blushed furiously, refusing to meet Oishi's eyes. Oishi smiled, knowing he'd hit the bull eye. "Ne Eiji, have you confessed yet?"
"Oishi!" Eiji stared at Oishi in disbelief, before changing the subject. "What about you and Fuji?"
"What about us?" Oishi asked back in return.
"Oishi, I think you've been around Fuji too much. Nowadays, you even say things which he will say." Eiji answered uncomfortably, wondering if he'd made the wrong choice by hooking Oishi up with Fuji.
"Am I?" A frown marred Oishi's features as the latter pondered over the issue.
Eiji was about to reply when he spotted Fuji coming their way. Smiling nervously, he greeted. "Hi Fuji, we are just talking about you."
"Oh really? What about me?" Fuji asked as he took the drinks layout on the tray neatly and carried them out to the living room for the guest, with Oishi and Eiji trailing behind.
"Nothing much, we are only saying that you are influencing Oishi with your sadism." Eiji replied cheekily.
Fuji raised an eyebrow in question, but make no comments. He merely watched in amusement as Eiji blushed furiously at the sight of Marui leaning in close to inspect the cake held in Eiji's hands.
It was not until they started handing out the cake did they realized there's a shortage of plates, handing the last plate over to Marui. Eiji frowned, knowing that he will not have any cake for today since the shortage of plates was no doubt, his own mistake. With a sigh, he tried to appear nonchantlant, but unfortunately someone had seen the crestfallen look on his face earlier on and decided to do something about it.
As soon as the others headed upstairs for some video games, and Eiji was left clearing the emptied drinks and food from the table. Someone had stood hidden in the shadows, the moment Eiji stepped into the kitchen, the figure stepped out from his hidden place and place a plate of cake in front of Eiji.
"Hoi?" Eiji blinked, and eyed the figure in disbelief.
For a while, he couldn't speak as words failed him. After struggling for some time, he managed to croak out. "Marui?"
Marui smiled at him cheerfully, "Eat it! I saved it just for you, it wouldn't do good for the birthday boy to go without having a bite of the cake. Would it?"
Eiji was touched, taking the fork from Marui he took a bite of the cake and beamed. "It's delicious, thank you!" he responded with a shy smile.
"You're welcome" Marui beamed. "Wait a minute, there's cream on your cheek." Marui said as he leaned forward to swipe the cream off Eiji's cheek before licking his fingers clean.
The little gestures only causes Eiji to redden further and nearly dropped the plate on the ground if it weren't for Marui's fast reflex.
"Are you alright? You looked very red..." Marui asked in concern.
"Yeah...I'm fine..." Eiji responded shakily.
"Well... that's good! Come on, let's go... I bet your friends will be wondering where we are by now." Marui said as he pulled Eiji along and headed upstairs to join the rest of the guests for games.
Owari
date started: 09/06/05
date completed: 09/06/05
