2/

Saturdays were the best day of the week.

Gakuto spent most Saturdays at Yuushi's place, meaning he didn't have to go home and watch his mother be disgustingly attentive to her latest and greatest boyfriend, Kobayashi-san. Or even worse have Kobayashi-san out of town and listen to his mother's obsessing for the entire evening.

But the best thing about Saturday was tennis practice with Yuushi. Hooking up on doubles with Yuushi was the best thing that had ever happened to him. He'd been languishing amongst the two hundred reserve players at Hyoutei when, out of everyone, Yuushi had chosen him.

Lots of reserve payers had wanted to play with the tensai, but only he had been a perfect match. He'd lost a lot of friends that day. People who'd considered themselves better players, and maybe they had been. He would do it again for what he'd gained in his partnership with Yuushi.

If he could have only one person to be with, he'd choose Yuushi.

'What are you smiling about,' Yuushi asked quizzically.

Gakuto flushed. 'Nothing,' he said shaking his head. 'Silly stuff.'

'Get changed then, I want to go swimming before it gets too hot.'

Yuushi was unabashed about showing his body. He stripped his clothes off naturally, tossing them onto the end of his bed. The taller boy stood poised in the middle of the room, not hiding or showing off, just standing normally.

He had wide shoulders, which tapered into a lean stomach and narrower hips. He was tall, but still defined, the indent of his spine leading the way to the rounded swell of his buttocks. As Yuushi turned to grab his suit, Gakuto's gaze glanced briefly over the dusting of black hair at his crotch, and the heavy hang of the other boy's flaccid penis.

He turned away as he hardened embarrassingly quickly. Gakuto hastily pulled his shirt over his head, hiding his flush under the cloth. That had been a really stupid thing to do. Gakuto attempted to covertly pull his swimming shorts on without attracting too much attention.

'What happened to your arm?'

Gakuto jumped as Yuushi wrapped a long fingered hand over his bruise. 'Nothing,' he replied pulling his arm free. 'Just a bruise.'

Yuushi nodded slowly, his lips pressing together pensively.

The public pool was packed even early in the morning. There were a lot of Hyoutei students there, but fortunately no Hidaka.

They had barely ditched their belongings in the change room before he was halfway up the ten metre diving platform. He wasn't really a great diver but there was something about standing on the edge of the platform. Nothing holding him in place, his toes curling over the edge into oblivion.

'You're not scared of anything,' Yuushi had remarked on his diving.

Gakuto shook his head. 'I'm scared, but I still do it,' he'd replied.

That's what he loved about standing on the edge. Sometimes he'd stand there for more than a minute, feeling the clench of his stomach and the hammer of his heart. Until the murmurs of the people waiting behind him would become agitated. Then… he would choose to jump. To tumble and slice through the air, plummeting quickly, fighting to control his limbs until his hands struck the water and his body was instantly slowed. Captured and embraced in water that would mute out and distort all happenings beyond its space.

He surfaced at the edge of the pool to be greeted by an unpleasant sight.

'Hey, Gakuto,' she said, sitting up on the towel where she reclined along side Yuushi.

'Yuki,' he grunted, ripping his towel out from underneath her.

Yuushi only smirked at him.

Yuki lived in his apartment complex, just across the hallway. She had somehow become one of his closest friends, though perhaps only in regards to proximity of their living arrangements.

'Don't be mean, I brought you an ice cream,' she smiled.

'Flavour?' he asked.

'Green apple,' she replied as if he were an idiot. 'I got Oshitari-kun grape.'

Yuushi grunted, his ice cream slowly melting, untouched, onto the pavement beside him. Yuushi hated grape. With a shake of his head Gakuto wordlessly handed his ice cream over to his partner, Yuki only frowned, bottom lip poking out for a moment before being sucked back in. She shrugged offhandedly, admitting defeat.

'You haven't been home, Gakuto. Avoiding me?'

'Always,' he replied accepting his half of the ice cream from his partner.

'Nice bruise,' she nodded towards his arm. 'I heard about what happened,' she remarked, entirely missing the enquiring glance from Yuushi.

'How?'

Yuki's face became pinched for a moment. 'Hanako… remember her, Oshitari?'

Gakuto sighed, as his partner glowered. 'She is indelibly marked upon my memory,' replied Yuushi with distinct distaste.

'Mm,' Yuki commented wordlessly.

For a moment they stood locked in a tableau, Gakuto the outsider. Whatever had happened on the handful of dates, he would probably never know. Whatever the truth of the matter was, he didn't want to know, but any conversation regarding Hanako was distinctly unwelcome.

While his partner's outlook was getting darker, Gakuto could tell that Yuki was about to let up. Only a moment later she shrugged and replied, 'Hanako told me all about what happened in your physics class.'

'I don't see how, there was nothing to tell,' he replied.

'What was nothing?' Yuushi interrupted, sounding a little irritated.

'How Hidaka-san hauled Gakuto out of class, after some sort of a disagreement,' said Yuki, licking around the edge of her ice cream. 'Are you two friends or something?'

'No,' he replied with an embittered laugh.

'Shame, he's good looking, I was thinking you could get his number…'

'Not even if we were friends,' Gakuto replied lightly.

'With that attitude, I don't know why I spend time with you.'

'I really wish you wouldn't,' he replied coldly.

'Fine, I won't come around tomorrow,' she huffed picking up her bag from the ground.

'I didn't invite you.'

'I'm making gyoza. You're not invited,' she said pointedly to Yuushi. 'See you tomorrow, Gakuto,' she called out with a wave.

'I didn't invite you,' he called after her.

'Gyoza?' Yuushi asked as he spread the towel out on the ground.

'My mum is in Sapporo. Yuki and I cook dinner together, it's easier that way,' he explained.

Yuushi nodded slowly, 'I didn't know.'

'It's no big deal. We're both by ourselves a lot… what's wrong?' he asked.

'Nothing, I just didn't know,' his partner smiled. '… think she'll ever forgive me for dropping Hanako?'

'No… but she'll stop buying you grape flavored snacks… eventually.'

'Good to know.' Yuushi nodded, pulling his legs up to his chest. 'Hey, Gakuto, what's going on with Hidaka?'

Gakuto's gaze lingered on the pool. 'What do you mean?' he asked quietly.

Yuushi shrugged. 'He's just been hanging around you a lot lately… I was wondering—'

'So, what does that mean? Just cause he's hanging around me doesn't mean anything. Besides, I can have other friends, Yuushi,' he replied, voice quivering slightly.

'Of course, I didn't mean… I just thought you said he wasn't… forget it.' Yuushi shook his head and rested his chin upon his knees. 'Sorry,' Yuushi muttered quietly.

The silence stretched between them. He wanted to tell Yuushi about Hidaka. He wanted Yuushi to make him go away, but what was he supposed to say? It was better to leave it alone, eventually he'd figure it out on his own.

We could do some laps?' he suggested tentatively.

Yuushi tilted his head to regard him quizzically. He generally hated the kind of monotonous training that Yuushi loved, I very thought of repeating the same activity in the same way for hours on end made him want to curl up in bed.

His partner nodded, 'Okay,' he replied. 'We could make it into a competition of sorts?'

'Competition?' he repeated his smile slowly widening.

Yuushi's shadow fell over him as he stood, his body a silhouette, the frame of his glasses flashing in the sun. 'Absolutely. Winner gets to choose tonight's movie.'

Gakuto shook his head and held out his hand so he could be hauled to his feet. There was no way he could sit through another foreign art house piece of crap. Yuushi would just have to live with losing.