Disclaimer: I don't own PoT

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"Hello… everyone…" he began shakily.

"Hi Eiji-niisan!" said Oishi's little sister encouragingly. Eiji gave her a slight smile and relaxed a little.

"I don't know what else there's left to say… everyone covered Oi-Oishi… pretty good." Said Eiji his voice hitching at Oishi's name.

"… It still hasn't quite sunk in…" said Eiji gesturing helpless at the coffin when his words failed him.

"Like Tezuka-buchou, when my mom first called me I thought it was just some joke… It just wasn't possible that Oi-oi-oi… he… could be d-dead," said Eiji failing his attempt to say Oishi's name and catching again at the word dead.

"In fact, I had been on my way to meet him… I was so sure that'd he'd be there ready to scold me for being late" said Eiji with a halfhearted chuckle, which only a few returned.

"I stayed there all day… and all night according the police, they weren't real happy" he gave another pained smile as he scratched the back of his head embarrassed.

"He never showed up…" Eiji paused looking over at the coffin once more. "I, I, uh…. I thought about not coming today… just because he didn't show up at the courts like he was supposed too…I was gonna get him back for making me wait… but then I realized how stupid that would have been… and that he probably would have been disappointed in me… that's the one thing I couldn't stand… I could care less when Oishi was annoyed with me… heck I even cared less the one time he was actually angry at me," said Eiji unconsciously bringing his hand up to the place where Oishi had hit him before continuing.

"Because, well, because I knew he didn't really mean it… It's just the disappointment was too hard to deal with, like I had let him down… It was always a thousand times worse than losing a match..."

"… He was always mothering me," said Eiji beginning to gain some confidence, it appeared he had the audience hanging on his every word, and there was no more pity in their faces.

"He would always tell me to wear a coat, or not go outside with wet hair… He was always there to make sure all my cuts had band-aids after practice, that I hadn't twisted, bruised or sprained anything during practice… This one time he took me to the nurse's office because of a paper cut" there was a chuckle from everyone present

"… He was always looking out for me… always keeping our fan club from permanently mauling us… I remember this one time… He pulled the fire alarm just so we could escape from them, He did! not me. Good little law abiding Oi-Oishi pulled the alarm." Said Eiji with his first real grin in a week, as he was able to finally say Oishi's name.

"He spent a lot of time helping my with my school work and helping me study, I always tried to return the favor, but I was more of a distraction than an actual help…" said Eiji trailing off as he remember three Sunday's ago. When they were supposed to meet, but Oishi said he had to study.

Eiji had gone over immediately after the phone call determined to help Oishi study.

"Okay! So what's streptococcus mutants?" prompted Eiji. He was sitting on Oishi's bed while Oishi was sitting at his desk. Oishi turned and grinned at his doubles partner.

"It's streptococcus mutans," he said shaking his head. His roommate had long since left to go study in a quieter environment leaving Oishi on his own to deal with his well meaning, but hyperactive best friend.

"… So what is it?" asked Eiji after a moment. Oishi stood up and joined Eiji on the bed.

"It's a bacteria that causes tooth decay," offered Oishi. Eiji dropped the book as if he had been scalded.

"Is it contagious!" He asked eyes wide as he reached for his bag, hoping to find his spare toothbrush and tube of toothpaste he carried with him everywhere. Oishi had laughed grabbing his friend around the waist as Eiji had leaped for his bag. They'd ended up so that Oishi had his head in Eiji's lap and Eiji was pressed against the head board, hardly comfortable to a normal person, but Eiji was flexible and used to it. It also wasn't an awkward position for them either, it happened far too often for it to be awkward anymore. Eiji looked down at Oishi clearly awaiting an answer. Oishi smiled up at him.

"No, it's not contagious, and I don't think you could ever get it," he said with a laugh. Eiji seemed happy with the answer and took the book back from Oishi and continued on to the next question.

After a few more hours both had grown tired of studying and Oishi had grown tired in general. For the last few minutes he'd been very sleepily answering Eiji's questions.

"What is a feverous patella?" He didn't get a response. He moved the book so he could see Oishi's face. He was sound asleep and looked calm, relaxed and cute. Eiji knew he was lucky. Oishi relaxed around very few people, in fact he only truly, completely relaxed around three people, his roommate Kiyoshi, Tezuka and Eiji himself.

Eiji had long since accepted that their friendship was far closer than most, it was probably closer than best friends were. And a few months ago that though had driven Eiji to the conclusion that he was head over heals in love with his doubles partner Oishi Shuichiro. Seeing Oishi like this he just couldn't resist. He slowly leaned over his partners sleeping face and gently kissed him on the lips.

"I love you Oishi," he murmured to him. Oishi opened his eyes slightly and Eiji pulled back bright red.

"…Eiji?"

"It's nothing! Go back to sleep" said Eiji quickly trying to hide his blush. Oishi nodded sleepily. Eiji slipped Oishi's head off his lap. He covered the taller man in covers and leaned over once more to kiss Oishi's worry free forehead.

"Sweet Dreams Oishi," he whispered.

"With you here they always are," murmured Oishi half asleep. Eiji blushed furiously and quickly left the dorm room.

Eiji blinked and found himself staring at his hands, he realized he was blushing furiously. He looked up to see his audience watching him confused.

"Why isn't Eiji-niisan saying anything? And why is he all red?" Oishi's little sister asked Oishi's mother.

"Shh, that's impolite." She scolded her daughter. Eiji relaxed realizing that he hadn't actually said anything that he'd been remembering. He was still bright red but finally remembered what he had been saying before the memory.

"Yeah, I wasn't much help studying, but I did learn lots of things from Oishi. For example, did you know that streptococcus mutans is a bacterium that causes tooth decay? It is! Oishi told me and Oishi's never wrong," said Eiji. His audience looked stunned.

"Hey, I'm not as dumb as I look… well at least Oishi always told me I wasn't… He was always really nice to me… He was the only person I know that could stand to be around me for more than a couple of hours… Sometimes I considered getting his head looked at for that reason alone," said Eiji smiling and relaxing, now that he was up here the words were coming easier, they just wouldn't stop.

"I'm rambling again aren't I." Said Eiji. "… Oishi wouldn't have said anything… he was that kind of guy. He would sit there and listen… Sometimes I felt like I was talking to a wall but then he was smile or say something and I knew he was really listening to me… few people ever really listened to me, it was a really nice feeling."

"Oishi is my best friend and always will be… It's just really weird to think about not having him around… I keep expecting him to pop up and tell me that I need to go practice, or asking to see my newest injury and suggesting that we should go practice the Australian formation again."

"I remember this one time. Oishi was being really stubborn. He decided that the only way to get better at our game was to be able to predict my every move before I even knew what I was going to do… He made me wear those bear bells on my shoes so he could listen to different way the bells rang so he knew where I was going to go before I moved… It was actually kind of embarrassing… but then Oishi wore them too so I could learn… and then it wasn't so bad." Smiled Eiji.

"I have a million Oishi memories… numerous sleepovers, trips to the get ice cream or burgers with Momo and Ochibi," said Eiji brightly as Echizen glared at the mention of his less than masculine nickname. "I remember non-tournament Saturdays where Oishi would let me drag him all over the city looking at pet stores… I remember how he let me claim one of his fishes because I wasn't allowed to have pets… I remember spending hours playing tennis or video games or just talking with Oishi… I remember the time I was running away from and he let me hide out as his house… that didn't work as well as I planned because Mom knew exactly where I went and came to retrieve me only an hour later… I remember how on the night before the first day of school every year I would sneak into Oishi's house and then drag him out of bed so we could spent the last moments of summer together exploring the city and just causing mayhem in general." He clapped a hand to his mouth and he looked over at Oishi's parents.

"I wasn't supposed to say that!" Everyone grinned and laughed. "… He always said that I brought out the kid in him, but that wasn't true, Oishi was a bigger kid than me at times, far too often for me to have been the only reason to bring it out,"

"…Oishi told me that I should never tell anyone about this, but I think you guys need to know…" said Eiji seriously.

"Oishi had a criminal record!" he said finishing with a dramatic gasp. The audience looked stunned and then Tezuka laughed. Eiji smiled, there was nothing to be afraid of, and talking was actually making it better.

"The night before our senior year of high school we decided instead of exploring we were going to cause some mayhem." Said Eiji with an almost evil grin.

"So we decided to start in the subway. We got on the subways and rode every single one that night… we started earlier than 3 that morning, the only time we ever did… We ran through all the cars singing as loud as we could just to annoy everyone. Then finally we stopped around four and went to Seigaku elementary and climbed to the top of big toy and decided that we weren't done singing. So we sang some more. And as Fuji already mentioned Oishi really couldn't sing… but it was okay, because I couldn't either… well it was sorta okay… because about a half an hour later we were arrested for disturbing the peace… We got to ride in a police car with the lights and sirens on it was really fun… that's why we actually missed the first half of the first day… neither one of us wanted to call our families, and we gave the police fake names so they couldn't figure out who we were…" Eiji stopped to smile at the memory. "I was George Washington and Oishi said he was Abraham Lincoln, he told me they were American presidents, we'd seen it in a movie, I think it was some American film we rented once… I looked them up later… it's kind of funny. Oishi fit his president but I was nothing like mine," smiled Eiji.

"So around lunchtime I was hungry and we decided on someone we could finally call… We called Tezuka-Buchou and he finally came and bailed us out of jail… It would have been funny to see the look on his face when he got the call… I made Oishi talk to him, cause I didn't want a hundred thousand laps and if Oishi talked to him we would probably only get a thousand." Smiled Eiji. His smile faltered as he saw the coffin once more.

"… I'm really gonna miss him…" He said finally before he slowly returned to his seat.