Chapter Sixteen: Kuni-Chan Once Again

"Mother, I…"

Tezuka, after much long, hard thought out planning, slowly and warily approached his mother in a strangely stiff manner. The older women immediately turned off the water faucet and wiped her hands on a nearby towel before turning around to face he son with a loving smile, making it all the harder for Tezuka to tell the lie he was about to tell. Damn that Fuji…

"Yes, Kuni-chan?" his mother said soothingly.

"Well, you see…" Tezuka took a deep breath. He would have to do a lot of repenting after this. "Mother, that transfer student we had over a couple nights ago, well…"

"Is she coming over again?" Tezuka's mother said happily as she clasped her hands together in joy and hopefulness. "Dear, that's wonderful! I'll begin making dinner immediately!" Well, that wasn't that hard… "Oh! I'm so happy you've found such a nice and pretty girlfriend!"

Tezuka twitched. Already he could tell that this wasn't going to be a pleasant night…

"We meet again, Kuni-chan!" Fuji said cheerily as the taller boy gave a grunt in return. Fuji wasn't the least bit phased by this less-than warm welcome. No, in fact, she was in a rather perky mood, despite her untimely and probably very disturbing time of the month. Tezuka, however, was just the opposite of that. (Kuni-chan from anyone else's lips other than his mother's was just embarrassing.)

"Fuji…" he said rather darkly as the girl dumped her things into his arms and proceeded to skip next to him to the doorstep.

"So, who's home? I want to make a good impression," Fuji said giddily as Tezuka opened the door and let the slightly hyperactive girl inside.

"Just my mother and I," Tezuka said in deadpan. "My father and grandfather are visiting relatives in-"

"Oh! It's so nice to see you again!" Tezuka's mother gushed as she raced up to Fuji and cupped her hands around hers. "I'm so happy my son has found such a wonderful girl like you to date!"

"…Eh…"

"Oh, I shouldn't be bothering you two!" Tezuka's mother said as she hurried back into the kitchen. "Dinner's in half an hour! Hope you don't mind, dears!"

"Thank you, mother," Tezuka said respectfully before roughly grabbing Fuji by her wrist and pulling her upstairs into a room. Tezuka ushered her in before turning on the light, revealing a room that was most certainly not his.

"Tezuka, did you do some redecorating?" Fuji said, completely serious as she glanced around the clean and traditional looking room blankly. Tezuka placed a hand on her shoulder and said in a very soft but dangerous tone in her ear:

"You are not staying in my room again, Fuji."

"But Tezuka…" Fuji moaned like a sad little kitten. "Why?"

"You know perfectly well why," Tezuka continued bitterly. "Please don't raid my grandfather's room either."

Fuji gave a small nod before turning on her heels and walking past straight Tezuka, much to the boy's surprise, before skipping down the hall and dashing into his room with an airy:

"You do that, Tezuka!"

Tezuka closed his eyes as a hand automatically found its way to his temple. Softly counting backwards from ten as an attempt to settle himself down, Tezuka waited until 'one' escaped his lips before whirling around and springing after the girl.

"Fuji!"

"Hoi-hoi!"

"Kikumaru, this is Inui," Inui said through his cell phone as he glanced up at Tezuka's room disdainfully. "It's Fuji."

"Huh?"

"Fuji's back," Inui clarified. Eiji could be heard giving off a surprised gasp.

"Really? Where, nya?" he asked excitedly.

"At Tezuka's."

"Eh! What's he- she- eh… Fuji doing there?"

"Want to find out?"

"I don't know, nya…" Eiji said a little shyly. He still remembered the last time the two, with Fuji, had crashed at Tezuka's house, and Eiji had certainly not enjoyed the laps he was ordered to do. …But then again, this chance was really hard to come by…

"Well, if you don't want to," Inui said.

"… Fine! I'll be there soon, nya!"

Inui smirked. Worked like a charm. Eiji was just too easy to talk into things.

"So, tell me a bit about yourself, Suzume-chan" Tezuka's mother said happily as Fuji civilly sipped at her water. Tezuka sat nearby, occasionally casting Fuji a few glares, much unlike himself.

"Well, to start off, I'm not your son's girlfriend," Fuji stated with an apologetic smile. Even she didn't want to take things that far. "My parents are just out of town today, and my best friend has a lot of siblings, so I didn't want to trouble their family. Fortunately, however, your courteous son here offered me a place to stay for the night. I'm really grateful. Thank you so much."

Tezuka mentally sighed. (He couldn't do that in front f his mother and Fuji.) Fuji never ceased to amaze him. Lies flowed so freely from her forever-smiling lips, and he wondered how a person like Fuji could do that without showing some sort of guilt or anything. …Or maybe it's because Tezuka was so bad at doing such things compared to the prodigy.

"Oh, aren't you an angel?" Tezuka's mother smiled happily as she dabbed at her soup. "Quite charming, isn't she, Kuni-chan?"

"Yes, Mother," Tezuka said with a very forced tone because obviously Fuji Syusuke, eh, Fujiko Suzume wasn't one to be called 'charming'.

He didn't like dinner, not one bit.

"Mmm! You have the softest pillows, Tezuka," Fuji moaned as she buried her head deeper into Tezuka's fluffy pillows. "I think I'll just stay here tonight."

"Fuji, no," Tezuka said simply as he strolled up to her and attempted to separate the girl from where he was suppose to sleep. There was no way he was sleeping on the couch again. His back still remembered the aching from doing so.

"But Kuni-chan!" Fuji whined.

"No."

"Tezuka, please?"

"No!"

"But-"

BANG! BANG!

A silence fell between the two, and was ended when Tezuka briskly proceeded to the window, opening them outward, letting in a small breeze that made Fuji shiver slightly. Not even bothering to glace around, Tezuka stared promptly downwards, already having some sort or guess about who was there. His suspicion had been proven correct.

"Inui, Kikumaru," he addressed with slight irritation. Eiji gave a happy grin while Inui appeared to be too busy occupying in collecting dirt samples from the Tezuka property. For whatever reason he wanted dirt from around his house, Tezuka could only speculate.

"Hoi-hoi! Where's our Fujiko-chan?" As if on cue, Fuji popped out from behind Tezuka, responding to her friend with a small wave and her usual smile.

"Hello, Eiji," she said sweetly. "Hello, Inui."

"Ah, the effects haven't worn off yet, have they?" Inui observed, pocketing the bottle of dirt as he whipped out his notebook and a pencil, presumably from thin air, and began scrawling in a hand that only he could comprehend. "Echizen said you had been over to his place once during the past week."

"Had he?" Fuji laughed.

"Nya! You should have been there!" Eiji exclaimed. "Inui was forcing Ochibi to spill everything by feeding him with his newest Inui juice! But Ochibi only had time to tell him that one thing before he fainted!"

"Really?" Fuji laughed again while Tezuka faintly twitched. His mother's voice soon floated up into his room:

"Oh! Kuni-chan! Feel free to invite your friends inside, dear!"

And so eventually, with all the dillydallying and hassle involved, Eiji and Inui were now comfortably seated on Tezuka's room's floor and chair, respectively, talking avidly to Fuji, who was still on Tezuka's bed, and Tezuka, who was grimly leaning against the door.

"So what did you do after Yamabuki?" Eiji asked. Fuji had taken the liberties to tell the two all about her wonderful adventures, which enthralled Eiji to no ends and gave Inui a chance to take obstinate amounts of data on basically everyone involved. Tezuka could care less really.

"I got tossed to Rikkai Dai," Fuji giggled. Eiji gave a surprised gasp as Inui scribbled harder.

"And what happened-"

RING! RING!

"There's a seventy-four percent chance that that is Hyoutei's Atobe," Inui mumbled as Tezuka hastily went to answer his cell phone.

"He-"

"Really, Tezuka, I'm surprised you weren't the one to call me. You should honestly be apologizing for all the things your teammate did. Put a leash on the person if you have to and-"

"Please lower you voice," Tezuka said coolly as he placed the phone on his nightstand. "I'm not the only one listening to this conversation." Indeed, Fuji, Eiji, and Inui could hear the narcissist's voice quite clearly.

"Don't you dare interrupt me, Te-"

BEEP!

"Tezuka-san, this is Fuji Yuuta from St. Rudolph. Mizuki has been acting strange ever since Aniki left, and I think he's now hyperventilating somewhere in Atsushi-sempai's closet. If you could just… I don't know, maybe talk to Aniki, because I'm sure he would deny telling me that-"

BEEP!

"Tezuka! My luck has completely run dry right after Fuji left! I-"

BEEP!

"-Cough- T-Tezuka, this is –cough- Yukimura Seiichi from –cough- Rikkai Dai and -cough- it seems that –cough- my teammates have been –cough- either completely inattentive –cough- during –cough- practice –cough- or mentally –cough- traumatized –cough- after –cough- -cough- -cough-"

"Yukimura, you should be resting."

"No, I'm –cough- alright –cough- Sanada –cough- real-"

BEEP!

"Tezuka! This is Oishi! It seems that Echizen has gotten sicker and is now in the hospital! (Inui: …It looks like I added too much of XXX to the juice… Tezuka: GLARE.) I was wondering if you could get a hold of Inui, because I can't seem to reach-"

"I am just about fed up with all the interruptions! Why is it that every time I try to talk to you, Tezuka, that-"

"Tezuka-san, Mizuki is now reciting poetry in my closet, and it's scar-"

"I'm so unlucky! Tell-"

"-Cough- S-sorry –cough- for the –cough- trouble –cough- I-"

"Enough, Yukimura, you should get some rest and-"

"Tezuka! Echizen's turning purple! Please-"

CLICK!

With trembling hands Tezuka had promptly turned off his cell phone. There was a tense silence for a few seconds before the Seigaku captain whirled around in a cloud fury. Eiji whimpered, Inui cringed, and Fuji, as always, just simply smiled.

"Fix it! ALL of it!"