A Little Something
A Prince of Tennis fan fiction
This didn't turn out the way he calculated it to be.
Using the cooking chopsticks to pick it up, Inui glanced down ruefully at the charred remains of his tonkatsu. The human body might be composed in part of carbon, but he believed carbonized meat was not how it was meant to be ingested. Inui, known for his clean record in the Chemistry laboratory, had just made a mess of a simple meal comparable to thrashing the laboratory. And that wasn't even the worst of the disaster - his eyes strayed on the remains of the soggy vegetables simmering over the stove, and to the other unmentionables all over the kitchen. The only thing that escaped the fiasco was the rice, but he had the rice cooker to thank for that.
Inui toyed with the idea of ordering something, but it just didn't seem right. And he knew Kaidoh appreciated traditional Japanese dishes more than Western takeout. This was a special day, after all. When he saw his kohai's name in the list of those who passed into the same university he had immediately called, offering congratulations and dinner.
Scratch the dinner part, then, he thought, chagrined. What had possessed him to try a hand at cooking? To show off to his kohai? To try to make this dinner special? Ah, but his luck with activities outside tennis and academics was always bad - he tried to forget how bad he was with bowling, even with the best calculations - and was that the door? Was Kaidoh already here?
"Sempai." The other boy didn't know where to look. Inui belatedly realized he was still wearing the only apron he found, the one with yellow piyo-piyos running across the front. It was too late to remove it now. "Did I come too early?"
"No, Kaidoh, you were punctual. Come in." There was a moment's delay by the door as Kaidoh slipped off his shoes and coat. "I was supposed to prepare a little something, but that option is now out. There is a soba shop at the corner, we can go out and order some handmade soba after I clean the kitchen, if you do not mind waiting."
"It's all right, sempai." He stopped before the kitchen when Kaidoh showed signs of following him in there. If his kohai saw the mess what would he think? But the smell of the burning food alerted his kohai. Kaidoh gave an exclamation of alarm. "Something's burning!" he said, going into the kitchen and stopping by the doorway of the disaster area formerly known as the Inui kitchen.
"They've been burnt for a while," Inui said, embarrassed. Kaidoh was speechless, but then anyone would be, taking in the burnt food, the table set for two in the traditional manner. "The rice is edible, so maybe we can just get something..." His voice trailed off as Kaidoh turned off the stove. "Well, it was the thought that counted," he added, trying to make a joke of everything as he pulled off the apron.
"I don't mind eating this," Kaidoh said. "After the Aozu, I can eat anything."
"I'm grateful you would say that, Kaidoh, but it would be unhealthy to eat an extremely overcooked meal." Inui moved to stand behind Kaidoh, putting his arms around his kohai and resting his chin on the other boy's shoulder. "What did they say?" he asked, looking at his kohai's flushing face.
"They thought it would be a good idea, sempai."
"Sadaharu, Kaoru," he corrected, smug. "Does this mean I have an apartment mate for the next semester?" At Kaidoh's embarrassed nod he added, "Ah, this is a cause for celebration. Let's go to an izakaya."
And Kaidoh didn't complain when Inui took his hand as they left the apartment. That too was a little something to celebrate about, Inui thought, contemplating the days they'll now be spending together from now on.
-end A Little Something-
One of the first few fanfics I've finished in ages, for the birthday girl, AAincognito. (Jan 2005)