Title: Fifteen-Love

Theme: 3- challenge
Genre: Humor/Romance
Pairings: Dearka/Yzak
Word Count: 1,681

Summary: Yzak made everything into a competition, even something like tennis.

Written For: iceblue1389 on livejournal

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It was early. Far, far too early for his phone to be ringing off the hook, Dearka noted. For a brief moment, worry etched across his features.

Was someone in trouble? Was there an emergency?

But that was all shrugged off as he rolled over and started to fall back asleep. His answering machine would take the message, he thought to himself as the loud beep echoed across the room; but the caller was determined to get Dearka up.

"Dearka, you lazy ass! Answer the damned phone, it's an emergency!"

Glaring at the phone, and wondering what sort of emergency Yzak could get himself into at three in the morning; Dearka warily picked up the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Dearka, listen to me and listen good. I'm in no mood to repeat myself."

"What the hell is the…"

"Just listen," Yzak snapped, "I want you to go out and buy yourself a pink polo shirt and very short pink shorts."

"Yzak, if this is your idea of kinky phone sex then…"

"Dearka…" He hissed, "Just do it. Now."

"Um, Yzak?"

"What?"

"Last I checked, any store having such 'high class' fashion probably isn't open at three in the morning."

Dearka could hear Yzak sigh in exasperation, "Then do it first thing when they do open and get your ass over here."

"Can I ask why?"

"No."

"Yzak…" He leveled with him.

"It's an emergency, let's leave it at that. Oh, and pick up a tennis racket because I'm not letting you damage Mother's."

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If there was two ways to really irritate Dearka Elthman, Yzak had just done both. One- was waking him with a not-so-serious emergency in the middle of the night. Two- was making him wear pink short-shorts.

Yes, on the overall, Dearka was not in a good mood by the time he showed up at the Jule household.

"… 'Morning," He mumbled to a frantic looking Yzak as the door swung open.

"You're late."

"Well excuse me for not knowing which stores in this city carry the damned shorts you wanted me to wear. It's not like I normally go about wearing these things!"

Yzak snorted and crossed his arms, "I take it then you still don't know what's going on, eh?"

"It's the inter-PLANT tennis tournament they used to hold every year before the wars. I'm not blind and deaf," Dearka muttered, thinking to all the hype there'd been since they were able to hold it once again, "My question is why the hell am I playing with you? Did something happen with Ezaria?"

Before Yzak could reply, the very woman they were speaking of called out from the living room.

"I'm very sorry for the trouble, Dearka. But Yzak assured me that you'll make a good partner."

Dearka glanced in that direction and noticed her leg propped up on the couch.

"Twisted ankle?"

"Yes. Most unfortunate timing, but luckily Yzak knew just the person to call on short notice."

Shrugging and walking past Yzak just to aggravate him, Dearka headed towards the living room.

"Yes, just remind him kindly next time that calling me at three in the morning in panic over a tennis match isn't welcomed."

Ezaria laughed, "I warned him you might not be very happy about that."

"Mother!" Yzak exclaimed as he followed Dearka into the room.

"Oh come on now, Yzak. If I can't do the usual Mother thing and be best friends with your girlfriend, then your boyfriend and I will just have to pick on you."

Turning his head away, Yzak flushed red and quickly changed the subject.

"Well, we'd better get going. The tournament signups begin in an hour."

"You take care of yourself, Ezaria. I'll make sure Yzak doesn't kill anyone," Dearka remarked to the silver-haired woman.

She laughed and patted his hand where it sat on the couch arm.

"Good luck, on that and on the match."

Having had enough of Dearka and his Mother teaming up on him, Yzak cleared his throat.

"Goodbye Mother, we'll make you proud," He said, leaning down to hug her.

She patted him on the back, "I'm sure you boys will."

The two picked up their tennis rackets from where they rested against the wall and started walking towards the door. As Yzak opened it, Dearka casually leaned over to whisper to him.

"You do know I'm not all that good at tennis right?"

Yzak blinked, cursed under his breath then hissed out a reply, "Well then you have until the first match to perfect it."

And as the two went out the door, pink outfits on and tennis rackets slung over their shoulders- Ezaria couldn't help but smile. She might be stuck at home, but she was certain that watching the matches on TV would provide more than enough entertainment for the day.

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"The next match of the day will be between the Zala and Jule teams," The announcer's voice echoed across the court.

It was the match many people had been waiting for. While back when Patrick Zala was alive, he and Ezaria were on civil terms- their two sons were another matter entirely.

Having won their first three rounds, Yzak and Dearka had made it to the final round against none other than Athrun's team. But as Dearka listened to Yzak rattle off battle strategies and other various ways in which they were going to 'kick Athrun's pathetic ass' he noticed the lack of one rather important detail.

"Um, Yzak?"

"What?"

"Who's Athrun's doubles partner since his Dad's dead?"

Yzak crossed his arms smugly, "That's easy. Since that Orb representative is busy, he's only got three choices. One, Kira Yamato. Possible problem, but I'm sure we can handle it. Two, that girl he took with him when he left the Minerva. And three, one of the other former Minerva crew that he might have befriended. In any case, it's nothing we need to worry about."

Dearka looked skeptical, "Okaaay, if you say so Yzak. Just don't blame me if we get our asses kicked."

"You've been doing fine. I thought you said you couldn't play tennis?"

"I can't. But the concept of 'hit the ball over the net' is simple enough for even an idiot to get. It's the scoring I don't get. Did whoever invent it not know how to count or something?"

Yzak rolled his eyes, "Like I'd know, but all that matters is we win and they lose. So we just get four hits over and that's that."

As the two walked out onto the court though, Dearka spotted the one sure fire thing that would cause their defeat- namely the person playing as Athrun's partner.

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They'd tried everything, but all of Yzak's strategy fell apart at the seams given who they were playing against. It was hard to "play hard and ruthless" when you could only direct that anger towards one of the two opponents.

Needless to say, after one lucky hit against the Zala team- the Jule team scored no more. By the time the other team reached their 40 points, Yzak was seething. His glare shifted from Athrun, to the seat in the audience occupied by Kira. Kira, Yzak noted with a scowl, who was currently embracing the one person who single-handedly defeated the Jule team.

Then again, as even Ezaria noted from home, there wasn't really any way to expect Yzak to play viciously against his idol, Lacus Clyne.

On the ride home, Dearka tried his best to cheer up Yzak.

"Well, at least we made it to finals- right Yzak?"

Yzak fumed, taking a sharp turn on the road and aptly reminding Dearka that there was an angry, sore loser behind the wheel.

"Why the hell didn't he use Yamato? We could have beaten him then!"

Dearka shrugged, "I overheard that Kira said he can't play very well so Lacus volunteered to play in his place. Plus she used to play tennis with Athrun when they were children."

"Oh isn't that peachy," Yzak sneered.

"Come on, Yzak. We got a trophy, your Mom probably even knew we were doomed the second Lacus stepped out on the court and Athrun didn't score any of their final points. If you look at it that way, Lacus was the one who beat us, not Athrun."

Anger subsiding, the silver-haired man muttered back, "I guess. Our one point against them was one he missed."

Reaching over, Dearka ruffled Yzak's hair.

"See. We did beat Athrun, we just lost to Lacus. Which, well hell- who wouldn't lose to her?"

"I suppose you have a point…"

The car fell silent but Dearka smirked as an idea pricked at the back of his mind. Shifting until he could reach his back pocket, he pulled it out and checked the amount of money it.

"Turn right up here."

"Why?"

"I think we're both due for some ice cream."

Yzak frowned, "You're paying."

"I know, I know. But first we're going shopping to get me out of this stupid outfit."

Studying his own outfit, Yzak glared, "What do you mean stupid outfit? Mother picked this out."

"Yzak. It's pink and the shorts are riding up my ass."

"Fine. But you're buying me a new outfit too then," Yzak replied, turning the car in the direction of the mall. "Because heaven forbid I wear something you deem 'stupid'."

The two leveled each other with a glare as Yzak parked the car, both of them trying to out-stare the other. Finally, Dearka winked and quickly pecked a kiss on Yzak's nose.

"Love ya too, Yzak."

The two playfully shoved each other as they walked towards the mall entrance, but as they neared the door- Dearka slung an arm around Yzak's shoulders.

"You know that tennis thing is kinda fun. We should do it more often."

Yzak smirked, "I'll have to buy you a matching pink racket then."

The two started laughing at that, although Dearka secretly wondered if Yzak would indeed carry through with that threat. Somehow though, the fact that they'd lost the match didn't seem to matter much anymore.

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